FL CommunityFans

Picked up a mixed amount of small malawi for under 10$ to appease me til I figure out what I actually want to stock the tank with.
Here are some pics. They are very small still, hence the really low prices.






I can tell there is 1 yellow lab, 1 red zebra?, 2 rustys, and then an orange and blue one I am having trouble ID'ing. Any thoughts?

blue_sable

the blue one might be an electric blue but not sure on the other one but thats my guess

FL CommunityFans

I was told that the blue may also be a Kenyi? And the orange striped one some sort of peacock hybrid?

Allie

One could be a rusty. It's looks like you have red zebras, the brown striped one possibly being the blue red zebra male, 2 yellow labs that I can see.
That is an albino rubesences peacock. The blue stripes one is a kenyi, if it turns yellow it's a male if not it's female who are blue.
How big are these fish?

FL CommunityFans

All right at 1" or under. They were very small. Very cheap. 1.50$ per fish

Allie

You may have to wait a bit until the grow up to find out exactly what some are. But when red x blue zebra are young the males are brownish. The females are always orange err, red.
These are all Mbuna so you'll need lots of rocks. A good mixed of a vegie & meat diet is good for them.

FL CommunityFans

That's what the tank looks like so far. Should I add more rocks? Putting in some corrugated plexiglass painted black soon as I can find the plexi. Having trouble finding it locally. That's broken lava rock on the left side. It shows up far redder than what it actually is. The fish are small enough now, they race around through there and back to the open side of the tank.

FL CommunityFans

To understand more, the striped one that I was thinking was a rusty may be a blue zebra, and the non striped one might be a rusty? The striped orange looking one is the peacock, and the brighter/deeper orange/red is a female red zebra?

(of course I understand what you are saying, they may be too small at this time to properly identify, just want to make sure I am understanding.)

Shawnie

it looks AWESOME!! where did u get all those rocks?? and if you get some outside, whats the process of being able to use them in your tank??

Allie

You got it. The brown ones are usually hard to indentify b/c most female zebras are brown with the exception of the cobalt blue zebras and the red x Blue zebras. But being as you have female red zebra I am willing ot bet the brown striped one is a male. I hope so for you, they look awesome when they get bigger.

Allie

The tank looks great.

FL CommunityFans

I got them at a local rock yard. The gray ones are gabion. Parts of very large boulders that they use to shore up river sides and ****s, etc. The red of course, is broken lava rock. I got 160lbs of gabion and 40lbs of black and red lava rock for less than 9$.

Still in the process of trying to 'cement/silicone' the lava rocks together to form larger structures, but having no luck so far.

As far as cleaning, I made a bleach solution, scrubbed the rocks until all loose debris was off, then let them soak in the solution for 24 hours. Took them out and let them drip-dry after that. Did the good ol smell test and didn't smell anything so started forming the rock pile.


Thanks. Should I load more rocks on the right side, or leave it open? Seems like the current fish have been making use of it. I made little 'divots' in the sand and they seem to sit in them and circle for a bit before going back to the rock pile and the stronger current side of the tank.

blue_sable

the blue could also be a johoni as well

Allie

Nope it a kenyi for sure.

FL CommunityFans

Johannii's haver vertical lines instead of the horizontal lines pictured above. The fish I have are juveniles also, so if it were a johannii, they would be orange. They are dimorphic and are all orange at birth, and as they mature the males get their gorgeous blue patterns. It's at this time the johannii can be confused with the maingano, though from what I understand the maingano is a bit darker, almost black like, where the johannii's dark streaks are dark blue, and not a black. This is only what I have read though. They say that EB Johannii are Maingano's which is just confusing.

steveangela1

Im thinking the orange one is a red zebra, and the blue is a female kenyi.

steveangela1

The sizes of the rocks are great! it looks wonderful! one thing that I would make sure of when they are bigger is that the rocks are super secure.. when they get to digging they will dig to the bottom of the tank if they can.. (which at 1 inch size won't be for a while) my little ones in my 5g tank are 1 inch size ... thats actually the size rocks I need to ad to my mbuna tank we need some bigger rocks for ours as they get bigger for bigger caves...

we are thinking of getting black pvc pipes and putting tank sealant on them and rolling them in substrate to make more caves?? on top of the rocks already....

you know now that I think of the sizes of my mbuna fry one of my red zebra fry is pale like the pale ones in your pics.... so that might be what it is.. but like allie said it takes a while of them growing before you can really tell what they are

FL CommunityFans

Pretty sure they are very stable. Did my best to clear the substrate away when I placed the rocks, then I moved the rocks back and forth to make sure they were stable. I may move the topmost rock on the right (one of two). It moves a bit if I 'bump' the tank, and I'd hate for the fish to somehow bump it off, though I don't know if they could.

I have a bunch of 3-4" white pvc piping. All sorts too. I was thinking of doing the same thing, but once I put rocks in, ran out of room for those things really fast. I may paint them with some krylon fusion and try it though.