The problem with a lot of local stocks is quality of the fish (or rather, the lack of quality fish) - ppl who have seen quality cichlids (wild-caught, F1, line-bred, etc) can testify to that.

Baenshi is very common in LFS, but they are all hormoned. They grow exceptionally large too (due to the hormones).

Remember, even the common cichlids are beautiful. Nimbochromis = interesting behavior (and body pattern no other common cichlid have). Baenshi = the best golden-yellow peacock you can get. Electric Blue = a beautiful metallic blue hap (and it's very easy to get). Even the common Yellow Lab is a beauty.

Yeah, Nimbochromis has that interesting behavior ... but gotta train them to eat live fish/fry. If you feed them pellets, they will get used to it ... and "play dead" less. Heck, even if you feed Mbuna pellets all the time, they will not scrape algae from the rocks as much.

Dom, it's your choice. I stick to my original suggestion to get mid-sized haps since you're planning to downsize to a 4-footer in future.

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~ John ~
I am a Malawi Fan!