Hello everyone, about a month ago I set up my tank. I would like to know everyones feedback and any advice would be greatly appreciated. I will post pictures of the tank and of the fish. Can anyone help me with the sex of my fish? I'm thinking about putting in a pleco, but i need help choosing one. I was thinking rubber lip or a bristlenose. I'm just afraid the cichlids will poke at the bristles. I put in two moss balls and an amazon sword. I know cichlids will uproot the plant eventually, but I just wanted to help keep the tank as clean as possible while it cycles. My ammonia has went down from a 1 to a .25 and my nitrites are reading 0 and very little nitrates. Am i on the right path? Thank you all in advance and I'm very excited to be in this hobby and especially with african cichlids.

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Great tank. It does sound like your tank is cycled or very close to.

One suggestion is get better lighting. I noticed the purple tint to the lighting. Since you are not a "planted tank" per say because of the tank being a cichlid tank, I would try to find a bulb with a higher kelvin rating. This would make those beautiful colors of your fish in the tank stand out even better. Daylight 6500 would look great.

Go slow on adding fish on a newer tank is always sound advice.

Off to a good start---Looks like you have a male EB Johanii, possibly a young female BB Orntus, probably too soon to tell on the Auratus. My advice is water change is your friend---get it down to a science and all the fish will be Happy-Happy-Happy!

I have a 55gl Lake Malawi tank up and running for about 1 yr. Have a bristle nose never had any problems.

Thanks for the responses guys, yeah im doing to change my lighting soon to the marineland with the day and night light settings, however one thing i did change though was my filter. I had a Aquaclear power 50 filter on there and realized for these fish I would need more. I went to my LFS and exchanged it for an Aquaclear power 110 filter. I kept my bio max from the 50 though and will keep it in my tank until bacteria builds up on the 110. I also put on an aquaclear power 50 powerhead. Cichlids are LOVING the current. Any suggestions on what I should do next?

you will need to make a lot more caves, eventually. as males become dominant you can expect an entire ornament to be claimed by one fish, chasing all others within line of sight away. you have some of the most aggressive mbuna commonly available. You will need to at least double or triple your stocking as they grow to avoid anyone being picked on. It will probably be fine for 6 months or so, as they all appear to be very young.


I see at least one bumblebee cichlid, the blue with horizontal stripes is likely a maingano or male johannii, the albino appears to be either a red zebra or snow white socolofi. it's difficult to tell when they are so small. there's a yellow lab in there too. The lab is the odd man out in this group- it will probably be ok but will not thrive amongst such aggressive species. the lab won't hold up in a fight with them, and there will definitely be fights... it's what mbuna do.

Nice setup I have some if the same fish and will soon be adding a second filter .. Gonna go with a fluval 55. As of now I have a aqua tech 60 and it's working for the time being.

that EB Johanii is awesome! would like to see some updated pics.