FishProfiles.com Message Forums

See, your mbuna do love all those holes!

Those are some nice labs you have there - good solid yellow coloration in the body. Did you buy those locally or online?

What do you plan on stocking with the labs?

This is a deprecated thread, please make all replies here:
http://www.fishprofiles.com/interactive/forums/thread.asp?id=43141&page=1

Nice tank! The Yellow labs in the picture look almost the size as mine. Your tank might need more rocks. The cobalts might chase the yellow labs a bit. The cichlids, as a recently learned, love to swim through every crevasse in the rocks. If you stack the rocks higher in the tank, the fish will make territories at all the levels of the tank, with the more dominant closer to the bottom. My p. socolofi will remain lower and the yellow labs will live higher out of the others sight.

that is an excellent setup john ur fish look amazing

6x2x2 - Firemouth and Oscar Tank
30+ royal pythons.

Back in the game after 4 years out ..

They look amazing together, especially against the white rocks. You take good fish photos!

The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. - Oscar Wilde

Beautiful Fish and setup, I hope my 29 comes out looking close to that nice

thats a realy nice tank john i would put in more rocks but i know its dear! iv got they cobalt zebras they grow quite fast as for the e yellows they grow a wee bit slower.
Are you getting any more malawis or is that you finished let us know oh how big are your fish?

looks great ur question bout the 27lb rock i have a 40G long tank with bout 115lbs of weathered limestone rock in it n im looking for about 15-20 more pounds to go in it to finish my rock work
i cant get holey rock here but i have literly tonnes of lime stone i do alot of landscaping
i dont have the large open areas but i have bout 100 lil inlets n caves n holes for my fish
i have 4 red by reds 3 johoanii hybrids for now till my 10 yellow labs r big enuf for my tank then i m going to add maybe a few blue mbunas not sure which tho yet
but u got a great set up

More pics I have 5 blue cobalt zebras now .



[/font][/font]

I have built the stand myself and it looks exactly the same except i got about 40 angle brackets with 4 L and 2 T brackets on it. Also I have 75 gallon tank cycling on it.

*runs into Malawi Cichlids...steals john.stone's tank...runs back out again*

All I gotta say is that's one really nice looking tank, the "hand rock" doesn't look so much like a hand from the back .


^_^

Well, your options are fairly open since Labs make good tankmates for many mbuna. Since it's a 50G, it's probably good to stay away from anything hyper-aggressive like Lombardoi (Kenyii) or Auratus. Some people may disagree on that one but those species in particular, given their high likelihood of being extremely aggressive at maturity, really require more space for territories.
So what's out there... lots! I really like Pseudotropheus elongatus "Likoma Island" or Pseudotropheus acei. Their blues and purples visually contrast very well with Labs. Actually, many members of the Pseudotropheus genus are very nice looking fish and would make good choices.
There are many others out there, depending on the temperment and color variation you want. You could check around the cichlid-forum library and find something that appeals to you, and then check to see if it will work in your tank.

Indeed they do, very much so .

Thanks , I got them locally.

I don't really know yet... any recommendations?

Yep, I got a new tank, it's a 50g and I'm really excited. I'll be going with African cichlids, mbunas in particular. I'll be posting updates with new pictures here as they develop.

As of now I ordered 2 penguin 330s and 1 ebo jager 250w heater from bigals. I also picked up a 50g aquarium; I've already built my stand. I also have about 40lbs of limestone to help buffer the ph, I got 3 pieces, 2 small and one medium for about 50$. I'm currently washing play sand for the substrate.

I've got a few questions though...
1. How long will it take for the limestone to buffer my ph up to about 8.2? Out of tap it's about 7.8-8.0.

2. As for mbunas, I'd really like electric yellows and aceies... but I also like afras... How many of what should I get? I'll be changing 20% of the water every other day.

3. Are there any special precautions I need to take when raising mbunas?

Thanks everyone .

Current Pics:

Tank on stand


Tank on bed


rocks[/font][/font][/font]



[span class="edited"][Edited by john.stone 2004-06-01 20:25][/span]


[span class="edited"][Edited by john.stone 2004-06-08 22:34][/span]

[span class="edited"][Edited by john.stone 2004-06-12 20:42][/span]

I got my filters and later I got my fish!! Yay!!!


In the bag...


Still in the bag...


Well hello...


Where are we goin guys?





Fishy go through the hoooole....[/font][/font][/font][/font][/font][/font]

More pics with more detail
These pics show the rocks and the sand better... but they don't capture the true "glowing" quality of the tank the other pics do.





As of Monday 6/7/2004 at 10:15:35 PM it's only
13 hours 44 minutes 25 seconds or
824 minutes or
49,464 seconds


Untill I get my filters .[/font][/font]

[span class="edited"][Edited by john.stone 2004-06-07 22:17][/span]

More updates:
I liked the way the tank looked before... very simple... very clean... But the fish need what the fish need. So I went and got about 20lbs of rock to go with my current pile. I think this might be enough, but if not I can add some more later... So thats $90 in rocks... 20$ in sand and I havent even got any fish....


New rocks with old


Full tank


Rock Close up


Another Close up


Alternate rock view

Thanks to everyone who helped me As soon as my filters come (monday) I'll be getting my first lot of fish. [/font][/font][/font][/font][/font]

Lookin' good John. My 75G has white sand and a couple large pieces of holey rock as well... I should take some pictures now that it's all set up and cycled (as of yesterday!). Your mbuna will love swimming through and hiding in the holey rock.

Looks awesome! I've always loved the look of texas holey rock, especially with white sand. For mbuna you'll definitely need more rockwork. It's one of the hardest things about setting up an mbuna tank, as rocks from an LFS are so expensive - if you can get them from a landscaper or something it'll be much cheaper.



The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. - Oscar Wilde

Updates ...
I used LFS white sand instead, it was a dream to wash. Worth every penny. I also added the rocks and water... The only thing that's left is a heater, filter and fish. Here are some pics of my baby .


My rock work (I think I might need more)


Front shot


Slant shot


Filling


Rocks added


Sand added


Adding sand[/font][/font][/font][/font][/font][/font][/font]

[span class="edited"][Edited by john.stone 2004-06-02 19:41][/span]