Who Gives A Fish Forums

You'll find some species in general pet stores, but for a wider selection, it's specialist shops like Mikes Rifts in the UK that really deliver, and they do postal orders too.

It really depends on your vision for the tank. You could go for a variety of dwarf cichlids, but if you're thinking of more feisty species like Kribs or Steatocranus, you'll want to keep the stocking levels low. A decent-sized school of ditherfish would be a good idea.

Alternatively, you could try ...

Blimey, I think my Kribs are on the verge of breeding. Look what's changed overnight.

That cave is barely visible now.

Female's looking quite keen.


Male (new guy, arrived Tuesday) is already making moves.

As I said, I only got him on Tuesday, and they've bonded instantly. Both are proven ...

I've been thinking of some other options for the 29g tank. How about trying to breed some of those catfish, like Lophiobagrus or Phyllonemus? They're pretty interesting and not as common as some other species. Alternatively, I've always been fascinated by the Tanganyikan Mud Cichlids, they're really ...

The shy behaviour you're witnessing in your Kribs is pretty typical of dwarf cichlids, they often rely on the presence of "dither" tankmates to feel secure enough to venture out and be seen. I've had experience with Steatocranus spp. cichlids, which, despite being from similar waters as Kribs ...

Honestly, I think it's not the best idea to mix cories with your cichlids. Instead, consider Synodontis species from the Rift Valley lakes, like petricola or lucipinnis - they'd be a better fit. Also, multipunctata and njasse, the latter being the only Malawi syno I'm aware of, could work well too.

Planning to introduce Corydoras to my tank, just wondering which cichlids would be suitable. Pandas aren't typically known for their hard water tolerance, I've always thought of Peppered, Bronze/Albino forms as being more adaptable, Emeflaked Brochis and Hoplo Catfish also come to mind.

I'm looking for areas with strong current, around 15-20x turnover - that's where I'd expect to find these cichlids, given their similar origins to my Steatocranus casuarius.

I'm currently looking into some suitable tank-mates for my pair of Kribensis. From my research so far, I've found dwarf gouramis and kuhli loach to be promising options. The kids are keen on adding neon tetras or neptunes, while my hubby's a fan of glass catfish. I'm more interested in small ...

As in Steatocranus tinanti? Not a Tanganyikan, but an African riverine cichlid. Not sure how they'd do in a rift tank, my experience with Steatocranus casuarius has been that they can be pretty aggressive when breeding - they've taken out tankmates twice when they've had broods, and now I've got ...