The Mbuna cichlid is by nature quite rare in the wild they only exist in lake Malawi in east Africa, however over recent years have become a fan favourite in fish keeping as they have quite a few quirks not normally associated with cichlids.

mbuna translates to “rockfish” as these smaller than usual fish live play and eat all around rocky underwater caves and structures. These fish are not used to open waters and as such their behaviour reflects that.

Mbuna come in many different colours and usually only grow to a couple of inches in size, they add bright colours to any aquarium but please be advised they are cichlids and as such do not tend to get along with many other species.

Below are a few things to think of before adding Mbuna to your aquarium.

Try not to add to an aquarium with larger fish Mbuna are small but are incredibly tough and when mating can be very very violent.

Mbuna like other cichlids require a special diet their food should be primarily plant based such as spirulina, avoid normal fish flakes that are high in protein as this can cause fatal bloating ( Malawi bloat ).

Mbuna are lake not river fish and as such require special water permitters such as higher ph, temperature and also places to hide such as rocks and logs.

In my own personal experience mbuna live great alongside bristle nose plecos, yoyo/ Burmese loaches as these fish although placid will fight back but not enough to disrupt the hierarchy of your aquarium.

Further caution should be taken with regards to ornamental shrimp (blue dream in my case ) they can clear a tank of 50 shrimp in minutes as they are extremely fast.

Mbuna in summary make an aquarium a focal point in any home they recognise people, they watch you as you watch them their colours are captivating and bring a real sense of nature to your aquarium.

thank you for reading.