# How many hiding places for Mixed Malawi Cichlids in a 300Ltr



## Fishy_Cichlid (Aug 4, 2011)

Cud someone help me out. I possess a 300 Ltr tank (Net water vol.) in which I intend to accomodate around 12-14 Mixed Malawi Cichlids, maybe 3 each of each genus, maxm adult size being 6" though i will be stocking juveniles for now.

1. How many proper hiding places (here I mean crevices/caves with depth to fit in a cichlid) do I need to have ?
2. Do these cichlids (for ex. the same genus) also share hiding spaces, if they are big enough, say 1 feet ?
3. Are the cichlids mentioned above comfortable with a current produced by a wavemaker ?

Hope my questions arent stupids. I am pretty new to this hobby.


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## Fishy_Cichlid (Aug 4, 2011)

Please read Q2. as :

Do these cichlids (for ex. the same genus) also share hiding spaces, if these crevices/caves are big enough, say 1 feet ?


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## car0linab0y (Aug 10, 2009)

1. Have more hiding spaces than fish. Males tend to claim whole areas.
2. maybe, but not likely
3. depends on how strong the current is.


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

This is what I have observed with mbuna. Peacocks and haps do not use the rocks the same way at all.

The male does not want a hiding place, but a territorry on the substrate, ideally surrounded by rocks to mark the boundaries he can defend. He will not share. No roof required.

The females will flock overhead unless a male is chasing her and she is not interested. Then she needs rocks to swim through as she flees so he will lose sight of her. She wants very tight, fish-sized escape routes.

If find if I consider each foot of length in the tank one male territory, and make a rock pile half the height of the tank between each territory, this works. The males choose their territories on the substrate between the rock piles and the females swim through and around when they need to flee.

I don't make caves with walls and a roof...the fish do not go in there and defend it from aggressors. If an aggressor comes, they swim right out. I just pile up the rocks and the fish find good spots.


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## Fishy_Cichlid (Aug 4, 2011)

Thanx for the advice. It has cleared the air on quite a few of my misconceptions. I presumed that hiding places were home/roof for the fish  . I had also presumed that rocks were needed just to create crevices/caves - again for a home.
I think I can now add the rocks without really bothering to create crevices.
Thanx again.


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

Me too when I first started, and I was dismayed to see the fish swimming out of a perfectly defensible cave. :lol:


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## phinexswarm35 (Aug 4, 2011)

djransome u did make good points, in the beggining of my old aquarium i builted others rocks and very close were to hiding places ,my current aquarium i maked no caves and instead line of rocks
the fishes feels more hiding and less complex to distinguish where is a open swimming area and where is a hiding places overall more good
here some pictures of my aquarium a bit of idea
http://www.cichlid-forum.com/phpBB/view ... p?t=232239


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## Fishy_Cichlid (Aug 4, 2011)

Lovely pixs there phinexswarm35. i think the Blue Dolphin steals the show and its pretty colorful too. BTW do you have any problems with the compatibity ?


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## noki (Jun 13, 2003)

Do fish NEED hiding places? You as a hobbyist probably will want rocks, but the idea that rocks will solve problems is probably overrated. Rocks give the fish a focus and reason to be aggressive and territorial. Rocks do make the tank more interesting for behaviors. Small cracks and tunnels are good for babies to hide in.

Really, I don't think the fish like closed caves much, they don't want to feel trapped. Wide tunnels are much better. I like to have a big flat rock make a nice darker area underneath which some types of fish like while other types of fish like the flat upper top of the rock as a focus. Some fish like to breed on a large flat rock. Non dominant fish will share comfort zones.


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## The King Crabb (Jun 28, 2011)

Rocks and/ or hiding places are necessary. It may cause aggression in the fish, but it focuses it onto a specific place instead of letting him have free reign over the entire aquarium.

What I do is just stack a bunch of rocks and try to make tunnels pretty abundant, the fish find the places on their own and it's really interesting to watch them do so!


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## phinexswarm35 (Aug 4, 2011)

fishy cichlid,their some aggresion issues the haps are not hiding and mine aquarium while has hiding for iceblue etc demsoni the aggresion is in the right measure and its the fishes compatibity too
i thinking i set up the fishes planned well ,in the link more details on the fishes...


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## Fishy_Cichlid (Aug 4, 2011)

Hi all. I have been watching some underwater videos & pictures of Lake Malawi. I found that that the surface wasnt all that rocky. Places where there is a steep rise in altitude from the lake bed, especially close to the shores, there was a lot of rock faces with crevices etc. But overall it was a sandy bed with some large boulders strewn about.

*But what surprised me the most was volcano like mounds (about 2 -2.5 feet in height) in abundance on the lake bed. Cudnt figure out if that was the natural surface due to currents etc or fish-made.*

In some areas of the lake specially close to shores, there was quite a bit of underwater plants & moss all over the rocks.


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

The deeper, sandy sections house more haps than mbuna, and the various species of haps do produce a great variety of sand structures for spawning. The marshy sections at the shores are favored by haps for spawning but perhaps not year-round living. Except for the hap predators...they like the marshy section to hunt for the fry produced by the spawns.

But most of the photos and videos of the lake that depict mbuna I have seen rocks on the bottom.

So if this is not a mbuna tank, you would want more open sandy bottom definitely.


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## Fishy_Cichlid (Aug 4, 2011)

DJRansome, you are correct. I checked out those volcano like structures again.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0eYkEVCL ... re=related




[see at 2.20 min]

They are certainly used for spawing. And ofcourse, hardly any rocks there !!!!


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

I saw Ad Konings speak last month at the American Cichlid Association about Malawi spawning strategies. He had videos of many different types of Malawi sand structures being built and being used by the fish. Amazing. :thumb:


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