Well, I first got into cichlids when I bought my son a ten gallon tank and a few cichlids from petco. About a couple weeks later, 1 of the mbuna started beating the tar out of the other two and nearly killed them. Apparently kenyi's don't care for bumblebee's or red zebra's.
Especially when sharing a 10 gallon tank... I started doing my research and convinced my wife that I needed a 55 gallon tank. I found a great deal on craigslist and my journey into the world of cichlids started.
I immediately thought I would combine a few different malawi species and go from there. I was losing fish one after the other. I kept the males (mbamba, flavus, red zebra) and gave away the females. They still fought uncontrollably. I thought maybe if I added a dozen demasoni, the tank would be more at peace with the aggresion getting split around 12 more ways. I still kept losing fish due to aggression. I eventually gave away the 3 remaining fish (1 flavus and 2 demasoni) and declared that I would start over and try a different setup. Months would go by and I almost gave up my newfound hobby.
I briefly thought about converting to salt water but I did not want to be spending so much money after my horrible welcome to fish keeping. So I took my time scouring a popular cichlid forum website. I came to the conclusion that I wanted to have a low aggression, community Tang tank. I loved what I heard about the personalities of all the different Tangs. I did not want to make the same mistake as before and lose money and patience. I decided to build my own 3d background out of vinyl guttering, lava rock and black silicone. I figured my next fish should love their environment and new home. They will have plenty of caves in the background without taking away that much open water.
Within the last week, I have added 4 black calvus and 6 shellies (multies) to start this thing off. As I was leaving the guys house that I picked up the multies from, he tells me that he is the president of the michigan cichlid association and that I should sign up with this site.... Thanks Marty! Things look to be going very well. 2 of my calvus have come out of hiding and occasionly mingle with the multies. No signs of aggression at all!! I still look forward to seeing all of my calvus come out and eventually form a pair or two... I just need to complete this setup!!
