still got work to do on this setup, its only been setup for about 3 or 4 days now. Running a 450g OTTO cannister filter, white silver sand mixed with calcium carbonate substrate.

Absolutely incredible fish! Wild Caughts? I love the big Malawi Predators. I assume you are planning on breeding them?

I got them through my local aquarium, one had 6 females and they didnt know much about them, neither did i but the price was right (this was 3 months ago) and i kept them in a small tank but they got big real quick...and found out more about them and really liked them. I got a 4' tank as a temp setup (got it for $200 so cant complain) and i'd like to breed them once i get my big 6' x 2' x 2.5' tank made. plus also get some other malawi specy cichlids to have a malawi themed tank.

C.Moorii is the main other specy i want in with them as in nature they follow the rostratus around. The aquarium i now goto the owner breeds and loves malawi species just like me so his helped a bunch and helped me aquire the male.

Sweet set up!

very nice!! can't wait till I can get an aquarium set up like that...LOL keep it up man.

Thanks guys, I cant wait to setup my biggy...good thing i have a huge bedroom lol. I was really under pressure with this setup cause the male came up and i only had 2 days to pick it up or the aquarium owner wanted it for his own malawi collection...my 6 footer i'm gonna have stones cut with angles to seat perfectly in the corners etc by a mason i know for one side, the other side i'm hoping my male rostratus will make his nest in.

:D

how big are they?

Well the male and 2 older females are roughly 22cm to 25cm...cant approximate it since they dont stop moving lol, and the 2 juvies are about 15 cm long.

Do they live up to their "nickname" of "sand divers"?

LOL actually yes and its a pain in the butt when swapping them into another tank!!! i mean they literally disappear in a fraction of a second under the sand...they only do it when you REALLY freak them out though.

G'day, didn't the cycling affect them? were they a little crook while you cycling that tank?

looks good though btw.

didnt get sick in the slightest, i took water out of a 2 foot tank that has been setup for 4 months now and used 3 filters at once for 2 days before i got the new ones (i already had the 2 big females). One thing i have found is rostratus are VERY hardy cichlids, my male was eating within 1 hour of putting him in the tank, within 2 hours he was doing his little mating thing with the big females and assumed dominance over the tank lol.

I thought they'd be sluggish and get a little off colour but using the other tank water from my 2 females and from the pet store must if helped get the good stuff going in the tank. Also i've found the liquid filter medium i use speeds tank cycling up heaps.

Major problem is i had 4 days to pick up the fish so i had to bypass the 2 weeks i would have liked to give the tank to cycle with the cannister filter.

Thats good to hear.

Your petshop gave you water from their tanks??

how much did they give you?

with the fish they gave me around 80 liters in a big live fish transport container which i returned to him later that day, was heavy as fark though...he too some out of the females tank and some out of the males tank just so they'd settle in quicker which worked to my supprise.

Nice haps, it's really getting rare to see any of teh larger Malawi predators. Now you need an mbuna tank for feeders. ;)

holding off on more tanks till i can afford to get my 6' setup to put my Rostratus into and get some C.Moorii (blue dolphins) and other malawi species in there.



Just thought i'd put this here as well, its my entry into COTM :)

Beautiful fish! :kewl:

changed the tank around, i gave the male too much open space and when he made his nest became WAYYYYYYYYYYY too agressive and hurt 2 of the females (the biggies). so far his settled a bit which is good. and the pleco's loveeeee the wood lol.

:winner:

i'm kinda new to tropicals but isn't the water with cichlids a little to salty for plecos?? or is it ok? please explain? (sorry bout the noob questions)

by the way its lookin cool!

the plecos i have can handle the Ph of my water and were actually sold to me from someone that bred them in the same Ph water as mine (thus why i wanted them, less stress on the fish), and are actually thriving!!! i've found them to be good in alot of water qualities including my axolotls tank as they dont bother it being only youngsters...this is only what i've experienced with common bristlenose pleco and my leopard sailfin.

I know on another forum i'm on people keep them in waters up to a Ph of 8.3 (and managed to get fry out of them to boot).

Very interesting thanks for that.

Awesome setup! :tup:

Hi Sloory,

Salt is not really the issue here. What is a concern is the pH (essentially a measure of how alkaline or acidic something is)....There is also "hardness" to consider which is measured two different ways, General hardnes (gH)and Calcium hardness (kH). Do a little reading on aquarium chemistry and it will help you out.

Rift lake Cichlids come from quite alkaline, hard water. Most "pl*cos" come from softer more acidic water in South America...so they can have a hard time adjusting to the pH....

*edit*

make that 3 females :( one of the big oldies i've had a while kicked teh bucket...

Thanks guys :D

beautiful fish bro.:tup:


sorry to hear you lost one.:(

Bummer :rip: