Fishkeepers around the world have found a treasure in the colorful, rock-dwelling cichlids from East Africa’s Lake Malawi. These fish, known as Mbuna, offer vibrant colors and the ability to keep many different species together in one aquarium. An average Mbuna community tank can house 30 or more species, making it a fascinating and diverse environment.
To ensure Mbuna thrive, it’s essential to understand their natural habitat and needs. Let's explore the key aspects of Mbuna care, covering everything from tank setup to managing aggression.
We understand there are many different methods, ideas and opinions in caring for African Cichlids.
Lake Malawi
Understanding Mbuna Cichlids
Mbuna are endemic to Lake Malawi in Africa’s Great Rift Valley, a massive trench created by tectonic activity. Lake Malawi is the ninth largest and second deepest lake in the world, stretching 360 miles long and 50 miles wide, covering approximately 11,000 square miles.
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Cichlids entered Malawi via its tributaries, with two tribes - the Tilapiines and the Haplochromines, taking up permanent residence there. Things got interesting for the Haplochromines however, who went through “adaptive radiation” and today comprise around 1000 species, which is about as many species as live in the whole of the North Atlantic.
The Mbuna inhabit the clear, sunlit waters around rocky outcrops, resembling freshwater reef fish. These cichlids also have a unique breeding method: mouthbrooding. This allowed early cichlid colonizers to be mobile and colonize new areas. Interestingly, mouthbrooding occurs in home aquariums as well, provided mature males and females are kept together.
Setting Up the Ideal Mbuna Tank
When creating a home for Mbuna, try to replicate the lake environment, being deep and wide.
To start right with Mbuna a four foot tank or larger is best. Yes breeders and the shops keep them in tanks as small as two feet but this ability comes with experience, and it’s far from ideal. Some species are classed more as dwarf mbuna, which we will cover later, and these could do well in a tank of 36-40”, but even then a taller, wider tank with a volume upwards of 180 litres is best.
Coming from such a large lake the Mbuna are used to clean, clear water which is free of pollutants and rich in oxygen. Next is the chemistry of the water. Those with scaled-up kettles and hard tapwater will do really well with Mbuna. But these aren’t fish for soft, acidic water conditions so no to reverse osmosis water without adequate amounts of Malawi cichlid salts first being added.
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It is no secret that Lake Malawi is exposed to lime stone. Lake Malawi cichlids are in an environment that is warm and alkaline, in other words, has a high pH.
Choosing the Right Mbuna Species
Getting started with Mbuna can be somewhat of a trap for the uninitiated, as the most widely available species are nearly always some of the least suitable to get started with. Melanochromis auratus is probably the most widely available species, with juveniles displaying attractive humbug patterning, and it is a very hardy, durable species. But at the same time it is also one of the most aggressive species and will quickly dominate, then terrorise a new, sparsely populated tank.
A first foray into blue fish can also be folly, with Pseudotropheus socolofi being an attractive powder blue in colour but again getting aggressive and quite large with age. And Metriaclima lombardoi starting life as blue vertical banding on both males and females, males then turning a lovely bronzy yellow with maturity but also developing a foul temper.
Instead seek out a cichlid specialist who will have more species and better labelling. There you will be able to buy bright yellow but mild in temper Labidochromis caeruleus and dark blue but small in size and temper, Melanochromis cyaneorhabdos. Pseudotropheus elongatus “Mphanga” (small but feisty.
Managing Aggression in the Mbuna Tank
Male dominance is a concern that every African Cichlid owner deals with. Males which appear to be similar in color and/or species will challenge each other. Try to avoid owning two similar African Cichlids in terms of color and species. If you notice aggression rising in your tank, you can try adding décor to the tank to break up lines of sight.
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So we know that male and female Mbuna don’t form mated pairs, but that does mean that male Mbuna can be troublesome. To anthropomorphize, male Mbuna would like nothing more than to be the only male Haplochromine in the whole of Lake Malawi, or better still, the whole of the world. Hell for a male Mbuna is to be surrounded by other males, other better looking, more masculine males, who then eat their food, take up residence in their space and worst of all, take all their women. This results in a typical male response - fighting - and females who don’t know when to leave will get battered too. If you’re three inches long and aquatic, never get within a few metres of a male Mbuna with a rage on.
But our tanks are only a metre, a metre and half long at best, so knowing what we now know about Mbuna psychology, we have an anger management problem we need to address. First is decor. Where the Mbuna live in Malawi the rocks would need moving with a JCB, but we can use lots of smaller rocks, say 5-6” across, in piles in the aquarium. Pile the rocks together and females, fry and subdominant males can take shelter in the crevices and get out of the line of sight of the aggressive male.
Next you can pile rocks high to further obscure the line of sight across the aquarium. Make a visual barrier and two males will separate and coexist, each defending their own now tiny territory. The next stocking aid is to overstock. You have lots of filtration and lots of aeration, so go wild (filter bacteria levels permitting,) and quickly build up a high number of similarly sized, similarly aged (ideally young, sub 5cm fish). Twenty individuals is an absolute minimum, but 30 or 40 is even better. Grow them up crowded, where they all know each other and anger can be managed. Outnumber a male of each species by at least two females, so one poor female won’t get singled out and harassed.
Like a Cockerell with a group of hens the one thing that is really going to wind up your male is another rooster of his own size and kind. He will fight to the death to protect what is his and the newly introduced, disorientated male will always come off worst.
It is thought that the best manner to reduce aggression is to purchase all of your fish at a smaller size and relatively close in time. This gives them an opportunity to grow and mature together. We recommend buying at least three fish at a time if you will be adding them to an established tank.
Prior to buying a tank you should have an idea of the number and size of cichlids you want to keep. There is no guarantee of how any fish will behave.
| Factor | Recommendation |
|---|---|
| Tank Size | 4 feet or larger (180 liters minimum) |
| Water Chemistry | Hard, alkaline water (high pH) |
| Décor | Lots of rocks to create hiding places and visual barriers |
| Stocking | Overstock the tank with similarly sized, young fish (20-40 individuals) |
| Sex Ratio | More females than males |
Mbuna Diet and Feeding
In nature Mbuna feed on aufwuchs, an often read and often mispronounced german word meaning surface growth. This surface growth on the rocks consists of short strands of algae, biofilms and tiny critters living within it. For the Malawi cichlid geeks it’s the subtle specialisation of the 1000 species when times are tough and food lean which is so fascinating, as, like Zebra and Wildebeest on the Savannah which coexist by each eating different lengths of grasses, the Mbuna also do so by eating different lengths of aufwuch and grazing it in different ways.
The underslung mouths of the Labeotropheus mean that they can access and rip off the best algae growths in choppy water with very little levering, keeping their bodies flat against the rocks as they do so.
So in the lean times, each species uses its specialisation, be it for eating short algae, long algae, invertebrates, insect larvae, eggs, scales or even fry. And that’s how come there are so many species in Lake Malawi versus millions of individuals of one species.
In the aquarium, these specialisations are virtually never called upon, and instead, Mbuna grow big and fat on rich diets and regular feeds. This then gives rise to the so-called “Malawi bloat” although many other underlying factors probably also contribute to the disease. When a Mbuna has bloat its neck and stomach area become swollen and firm to the touch.
Popular advice is to avoid rich foods aimed at South American carnivorous cichlids and instead offer Mbuna specific diets which contain lots of algae, vegetable matter, and low animal protein.
Tips and tricks: They will love you for rubberbanding a piece oof zucchini, cucumber, romaine/greens to a rock and sinking it to the bottom of the tank. Glass jars with lids full of rocks and water left in the sunlight will culture algae for them they will also love you for, and semi-aquatic plants that need the leaves above water like Pothos, Ivy, Arrowheads, bamboo, water lilly, duckweed, eelgrass, water hyacinth and Pineapple plant, etc will be equally appreciated, submerging only a few leaves at a time per plant.
Hybridization
Mbuna will hybridise in the aquarium and for the sake of other Mbuna buyers, this should not be encouraged. Don’t keep females without a male of their own species in the community and if the fry are suspected to be of hybrid origin don’t spread them in the hobby.
Apart from the many feeding niches populations of rock-dwelling Mbuna have become genetically distinct, and separate species from one another due to isolation. Periods of growth and shrinkage of the lake’s shoreline and islands have left Mbuna populations cut off from one another by areas of deep, open water.
Additional Considerations
How to Set Up an Mbuna Cichlid Tank
- Mixing Mbuna with Other Cichlids: We do not recommend keeping Mbuna Cichlids with either Peacocks or Haps, due to their aggressive behavior and their opposing herbivore diet. Peacocks and Haplochromis (Haps) are both free swimming fish species. These cichlids should be fed a high protein diet. Peacocks and Haps are commonly kept together but require sufficient space to lessen aggression.
- Water Parameters: Water parameters are very flexible (Yes, Malawi’s do fine in 3 dGH on up and 7.0 pH on up) and you can put 37 in a 75-gallon aquarium. The aquarium is a natural system and Mother Nature is very flexible.
- Plants: To put it simply, plants do not mix with Lake Malawi Cichlids. These Africans will tear these plants apart in short order.
Mbuna Tank Setup
