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im sure they would be ok for a couple of weeks while you cycled a new tank. If you are in the states, I think petsmart has tanks for good prices, so does walmart. if you are in canada, I would reccomend petcetera for tanks.
My guess would be your fish likely need a 55g tank or larger, probably a 75g would suffice best. A couple good sites are www.aquazoo.com or www.thekrib.com is a great cichlid site. This site FP also has lots of profiles, check here too.
Also, you could just do a google for images of cichlids and see what you can find that way.
You could keep the 30g for the puffer, change it to brackish water, and then you could enjoy him for the rest of his life!
Good luck!


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The pleco should be fine with cichlids, but the common pleco will eventually need a bigger tank than the 30g. If it is a common pleco they can grow to be at least 12-15 inches.

If you are to keep cichlids, do some research on the net or a buy a book. There is a book called LAKE MALAWI CICHLIDS published by barrons and it is perfect for general knowledge of malawi cichilds and it has species profiles and descriptions. The best part of this book is you can buy for around 10-12 dollars. Some of the other books will cost 30-100+. Google.com searches are also a great way to find information. This is a good site as well.

http://www.mongabay.com/fish/species_index.htm

Go to your lfs and write down the sciencetific name for the fish you are interesting and do some research on it. Don't rely on the common names, there are too different ones for each fish.

ok, thanks a ton for the help.
This fishkeeping thing is turning into a much bigger endeavor than I was expecting, but its worth it!
I love coming home and they all swim to the top of the tank for brine shrimp!

can you identify the cichlids if you can. we can help make the tank better.

Two are Haps (I think,blue with two little yellow dots on the back underside fin, and pink with the same type of dots), then I have an electric yellow, and a bright orange one that I havent been able to identify, and then a blue and black striped one that I think is called a Johanni?

the only one that can fit comfortably in your tank is the yellow lab.if you really want to keep any of them the best thing to do is take back all of the others except the yellow lab. you would need to change to sand if you dont have it already. and then get a lot of rockwork for it. you can have a small colony in a 30g assuming that it is 36in long. you would need to get some more yellow labs and have a male to female ratio of 1M/3F. then you could get some sydontis. this is a lot of work. but if you want the yellow lab this is what you would have to do. for it to be happy. here is a good article on them
http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/l_caeruleus.php

What size tank would I need to be able to keep all of them, and would they be ok in the current tank long enough to cycle a new tank?

i would need to know exactly what species they are

Is there any other info I can give you that would help determine this?
Or a good site with a lot of pictures that I could go look through and try to find them? I dont have a digital camera.

what about the plecostomus? Is he ok in a chiclid tank?

would just a little 10 gallon be enough for the puffer?
I couldnt find any of them here (the cichlids) but I'm still looking.

For a tank that big I'm guessing I would need more than one filter? I use the one with the Bio Wheel.

ok one of them is a red finned hap
I cant find the other three
one BRIGHT orange one with no other marks
and a blue (almost violet) one with yellow dots on anal fin and very big mouth (compared to other cichlids)
and a pink one similar in look to the blue one above
If anyone has any ideas on possible matches let me know and I will go find a picture of them and see if it looks the same
I really appreciate the help, I want to make sure these guys are happy!

im guessing that there all different kinds of malawai cichlids. the problem is that a lot of them cant be kept together. haps and peacocks can be kept together but mbunas cant be kept with either. anyway a bigger tank isn't the best answer right now.

Why can't they be kept together?

chances are they cant be kept together because they require very different water conditions. Many cichlids from the African Rift Lakes require special additives to the water (rift lake salts), and high high PH's, around 8-8.5. That is why they cannot be kept together. A figure 8 puffer gets around 3, 3 and a half inches long and is a hefty fish in overall size. I think a 10g tank would be pushing it into the too small category. You could probably get away with a 15g maybe, you would have to ask one of the puffer people here.
The LFS you visit should have water conditions listed on their tanks, or at least the names of these fish. They should also have told you these fish dont belong together. IF I were you, when you take some of them back, tell them they need to learn a little bit more about fish before they sell them to unknowing customers.


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The problem is I already like them all too much, and if I bring them back they'll just sell them to someone else who probably won't even care enough to find the information!
I've done a little reading now, so how would this sound.

New tank for the Mbuna (75+)
Keep original 30 gallon with my starter fishes (skirted tetras and 2 mollies) maybe add some cories?
Then 20 gallon for my figure 8 (brackish, maybe some fiddler's for him to play with then eat )

Only issue is I think I only have 2 Haps, so what size would I need for them?

And also where to put the Pleco?

Are any of these the fish you cant identify?

http://www.aquazoo.co.uk/page.cfm/Type=Fish/ID=208

http://www.aquazoo.co.uk/page.cfm/Type=Fish/ID=162

http://www.frazerzoo.com/galleries/freshwater/images/peacock%20cichlids_jpg.jpg
http://www.aquaflight.co.uk/Photos/Malawi/images/Labeotropheus-trewavasae-th_gif.jpg
And heres a great website for looking them up on if none of these fit the bill
http://www.africancichlids.net

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The orange one maybe, none of the other.

Oh also when I looked again at the pink one I was describing it has little pink dots throughout all of its fins if that helps!

(currently looking though ac.com for identification)

that is a big debate there as there is many sources who believe that they can live perfect in FW and many people who believe the need BW