Beginner here, Building a 60 gallon aquarium.

Hanky

Glad to see your up and running, I wouldnt add anything to clear up the water, let the cycling process and filters take care of that, and they will eventually clear up just fine. IMO dont add unecessary chemicals at all ever, the best thing is a cycled tank and proper water changes to keep water pristine. keep us updated.

Tazman

No need to add chemicals to clear the water, it will clear up in a few days to a week.

Yellow labs, Afra and Acei would give you a nice color variation. Afra it does not really matter which ones you get, get 1 male to 4 female for ALL species and they will be happy.

Rusty are very nice fish but can be a bit of a bully at times. They have a nice purple coloration to them as they grow older.

Here is a picture of my 4 year old Rusty in my 75g tank.

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LyzzaRyzz

Wow, nice looking rusty!
Kudos to you, OP, for getting everything you need BEFORE you start!
I have a problem with that. >.<

Hadstuff

Honestly, people reccomend you spread it out, but ive never done that, and never had any problems with it. Just make sure they are the same size or close to the same size, just dont forget to acclimate the temperatures so it doesnt cause much stress

gwljr1314

Great looking Rusty, Tazman. It's one of the nicer ones I've seen. Just wondering if I have enough rocks or if I should add more. They looked much bigger outside the tank. lol I'm not sure if it's allowed or not but can anyone recommend an online store to buy fish? I've read all the reviews but none of them really seem to stand out. The LFS by me has a horrible selection.

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Tazman

What fish did you decide on in the end?

I would personally add a lot more rocks, the natural bottom of Lake Malawi is full of boulders and rock structure.

Where are you located as well? I can offer places to get good quality cichlids from.

gwljr1314

Yellow labs, Afra and Acei. Does the height of the rocks make a difference or should I just cover more of the bottom? I live in Long Island, New York. Thanks again Tazman.

sidluckman

Some other small Malawian Mbuna species I would recommend are Pseudotropheus Saulosi and P. Polit. Synodontis Petricola or S. Multipunctatus work well with Malawians.

Tazman

Agree on Synodontis working well with the fish you intend on getting. Saulosi though I would NOT recommend because of the yellow labs. Saulosi can get quite aggressive and will go after the yellow labs, simply because they look similar in color.

If you decide on getting a bottom feeder such as Multipunctus or a BN pleco, them you will need to get a piece of driftwood for them to graze on at night.

The rocks you can make quite high piles of them, 2/3 of the way up the tank and create caves. Keep in mind though, that mbuna DIG into sand and will likely at some point rearrange the bottom of your tank. Rocks ideally should be placed directly onto the bottom of the glass, some people use eggcrate (light diffusion panels) under the sand to prevent the rocks from potentially falling and cracking the glass.

Here is a link to a well respected site for purchasing cichlids. The quality of the fish is excellent and if they dont have what you require, they will order them for you. I can guarantee though they will have what you are wanting in stock. I got my rusty(pictured) from them, as well as all my stock I had in my 180g tank.

Hanky

tanks looking nice, I actually just ordered that same background from ebay, did you ask your LFS for certain fish? sometimes they are more than happy to order you special fish. Sorry i dont have enough chiclid knowledge to advise on those but Tazman has you covered there. also while thinking of adding fish read up on drip acclimation. it does better than floating the bags,