cajunstitcher

FOr the fish you ordered they will go great together, there aren't any more sp ecies that will go in that size tank with them.

The shipping, I wouldn't worry too much. Its warmer weather and I have had fish shipped and shipped fish for up to 3 days in transit and everything was okay. I just got one Sat that was sent out on Wed from Texas, the fish were all healthy. (just trying to give you some hope) Just make sure when you alcimate them you give them at least 15 min float time, and don't mix their bag water with the water in the tank, it will have a high ammonia.

I haven't heard from him yet. I will def post when I do.
I meant to tell you on the datari, Ndumi and Elongatus they are all from the psuedo group, so to keep from all out brawls, and hybrids its a better idea to choose one from that bunch, then the perlmutt is a lab species so it cannot be mixed with the yellow labs.

They are weird fish like that. On aquabid there is a breeder that has different groups for sale occasionally and If I was stocking a tank right now (well mbuna tank) that is a great choice, he ususally offers free shipping with his fish.

I bought my afras and polits from him.

I will contact a friend that lives close to see if they might have some labs. I actually sold my breeding group and someone else bought all of the labs I had.

For the size tank you have you can get around 13-15 cichlids in it. Sticking with afra, labs, some of the psuedo group will be fine.

Peaceful is something that you pretty much will not find with malawi's unless you stock with peacock malawi's.
I don't have any rusty's, I am down to around 3 electric yellows where I sold my breeder group and stoped breeding them. The red top hongi are just as peaceful, just a different color fish.

A good vibrant blue would be a afra type cichlid. I don't have that many fry right now of my afra's, but there are a bunch on aquabid for sale.

Something you are looking for is more like: afra, acei, lab mix. Def check aquabid. I can help with picking the people who are safe to order from.

Diatoms are not a big issue in a newly setup tank. I had them in all of mine. Just lower the daylight time,and step up the vaccuming.

I have red top hongi that are on the mildly aggressive list http://www.cichlid-forum.com/profile...es.php?id=1911 A flavus breeding group that aren't that aggressive (yellow/black). http://www.cichlid-forum.com/profile...ies.php?id=889

The hongi are 4.00/each, and the flavus is 25.00 for the group (1 male and several females 4+). If you want them I use paypal.

If you don't like those species the aquabid guy (carolinacichlid) is wonderful to order from I get a lot of fish from him.

dollar tree is ours goodluck!

fishlore and its members are a super great source for help and friendship..goodluck !

thanks for the friendship!

You might want to check w/ foster and smith about the substrate. I am going to order mine from them teh LFS's don't have it around here for my Congo tank.

I will be back by Wed of next week. So plenty of time, just check my avalible list and I will send you some pics if you need them. If I don't have anything you want there are some reputable people on aquabid that I have bought from w/ great luck.