# Did I make a mistake?



## flashardy (Oct 29, 2005)

Just bought 2 Malawi eye biters (Compressiceps)

Did I make a mistake buying them? Have kept Cichlids all my life(beside reef tanks too)
I have them in there own tank with soem tetras! Should I add anything special in the tank? It is heavily planted, when I mean Heavily planted I mean it! Should I take some plants out?

Thanks 
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Here are some pics!

here are some more pics of the tank

and the last pic


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## Puff (Feb 14, 2005)

well obviously you know that compressiceps are africans...right? from Lake Malawi...so the PH should be up over 7.5, and the water should be quite hard. there is a compressiceps from both Lake Malawi and Tanganyika. your one is Dimidiochromis compressiceps. which is from Malawi. i almost got a Altolamprologus compressiceps, which is from Tanganyika. The ones you got should look great once they mature, the Tanganyikan ones arent as colourful...but are damned cool as well.

Mature one of what you have...









One of what i almost got...









this is some guy's Mbuna setup...
the second pic of a Tanganyika setup



















they seem to be in more of a South american tank. i just setup a new african tank today, but have no pics of it yet. but you should invest in something to raise the PH and hardness of the water.

i used crushed coral as a substrate and that does the job for me, but you can buy African Lake salts and additives that do the same thing.

compressiceps are really cool fish. im new to africans, but it seems like the compressiceps you have is a lot more aggressive than the Altolamprologus comp...but they look fantastic once matured.

good luck


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## flashardy (Oct 29, 2005)

Yea I hope all is good on them, I mainly kept south american Cic's but had to give these guys a try, I used up my last ph to my reef tank so ill have to get more tomorrow and check it out! It should be around 7.6-to 7.8

Well thanks for the pics, they are doing great chasing the tetras around in circles and eaten em.

O well how cares they are replaceable!


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## Puff (Feb 14, 2005)

if you wanted to (and depending on your filter) you can buy little nylon bags that you can fill up with filter media...like bioballs, or the ceramic biomax things...what i did was buy a couple of those bags, and fill them up with crushed coral. then i just put them in the top section of my filter. kept the PH at a great level, and i could keep my sand substrate so its easier to clean.


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