A male peacock in a 75-gallon hap tank

[willie32]

I've got a 75 gallon tank that's ready to set up, and I've been thinking of doing a Centflake American tank, but after setting up an Mbuna tank in my other 75, I'm leaning more towards sticking with Malawis - just something a bit different. I've kept Americans for ages, maybe 10-15 years, and I'm about 4-5 months in with my Mbuna, and I just love them - they're everything I wanted my Americans to be, but never were.

This is the tank in question, partially scaped with the Centflake Americans in mind. I'm wondering if this is too much for Peacocks and Haps? I'm not worried about the wood affecting the pH or hardness of my water, it's 17-20gh out of the tap and it never changes in the tank, but I do know that less is more in this kind of setup.

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I think I might be best to take out most of the wood and just leave the stones before adding the substrate? I've got more rock too, so that can fill in some space.

In terms of fish, I've previously spoken to a few of you about a list I had in mind, but having looked around quite a few places in the UK, some of these species don't seem that common here. A second issue I have is that some of the Malawi specialists here won't sell single males, usually just pairs or groups. There are some good shops that I like that do get good Malawi and sell single fish.

This is from their stock list, and I think these are the fish that could work - not all of them, but are there any that people would recommend avoiding in this setup?

Aulonocara aquilonium, Aulonocara ethelwynnae, Aulonocara kandeense "Blue Orchid", Aulonocara sp. "Lwanda Red Top", Aulonocara stuartgranti "Blue Orchid", Aulonocara stuartgranti "Chilumba", Aulonocara stuartgranti "Maleri Island", Aulonocara stuartgranti "Ussiya" - these are the ones I'm most interested in, but I need to research some of them more.

Copadichromis azureus, Copadichromis borleyi "Red Fin Kandango", Copadichromis trewavasae "Ivory Undu Reef" - these are also possibilities.

Otopharynx tetrastigma is another option.

Placidochromis johnstoni "Solo", Placidochromis phenochillus "Gisseli", Placidochromis sp. "Blue", Protomelas sp. "Steveni Taiwan Reef" - these are also on my list.

I've also considered doing 6 Peacocks and Haps with 6 White or Yellow Labs, which could be an interesting choice.

[willie32]

It's quite surprising how quiet the Malawi scene is, isn't it?

[bettaMagenta]

I used to keep Rift Lake fish back in the day, about 20 years ago - our tap water is really hard here, so it was a good match for me. The colors you can get from them are hard to beat, especially if you're not ready to take the plunge into a marine tank. I never bothered with driftwood back then, instead opting for sheets of limestone about an inch thick - we've got loads of exposed limestone locally and it's full of fossils. I'd position them to show off the fossils, it added a nice touch to the tank.