The Mbunas are a large group of Cichlids that live among and near the piles of rocks along the shores of Lake Malawi in East Africa. Many Mbunas are very colorful with bright patterns of horizontal stripes or vertical bars.

It's a very common mistake to try to keep a small group with just a few Mbunas. The secret to minimizing their aggressiveness is to keep a group with at least 15 Mbunas. You could keep 15 of one species, which is less fun than keeping a mixture of different species of Mbunas, as discussed in story at a link near the bottom of this page.

When these Mbuna Fish are young and smaller than 2" long, a 30 gallon aquarium is big enough to keep 15 of them. But soon they will need a bigger aquarium, like a 75-gallon and bigger aquariums are better for a bigger group of Mbunas that will be socially stable.

Mbunas should not be kept in an aquarium with a thick layer of gravel. It is very difficult to keep Mbunas healthy in an aquarium with an undergravel filter. It helps to regularly clean the gravel with a gravel washer. It may also help to have reverse flow power heads. But by far the best answer is to have no gravel or a layer of gravel that is no more than 1/4" thick. Click here for more about aquarium gravel.

The Best Aquarium Filters
For most fish, including Mbunas, are the Penguin and the Emperor. Both of these filters are made by Marineland, and each of these filters contains at least one BIO-Wheel.  A very good combination for Mbunas is a 75 gallon aquarium with two Penguin or two Emperor Filters. Click here for more about aquarium filters.

Mbunas naturally live among and near large piles of rocks, and their aquarium should have several big piles of rocks. Mbunas will destroy living plants, but it looks nice to have a few tall natural looking plastic plants. Click here for more about aquarium ornaments.

Summary
an aquarium for Mbunas should contain at least 60 gallons of water with two Penguin or Emperor filters, and have the correct size aquarium heater, 1/4" or less of gravel, and several big piles of rocks that are intended for use in aquariums.

What to Feed Mbunas
When Mbunas are small, say less than 2.5 inches long from head to tail, feed them floating tropical fish flake food  that is sold in most stores that sell pet fish. If you read the ingredients, you'll see this food has a nice combination of plant and animal foods such shrimp meal, etc. This is very close to the Mbunas' natural diet.

Feed them at least twice a day. Give them several small amounts of the flake until they are satisfied, but be sure there is no uneaten food left in the aquarium. After 10 minutes, remove any uneaten food with a net.

When your Mbunas grow larger, feed them floating pellet food. Hikari makes floating pellet food for cichlids. These pellets are available in a variety of sizes and sold in most stores that sell pet fish.

Do not feed your Mbunas worms or prepared beef heart. Click here for more about feeding fish.

Do not Feed Worms of any kind to your Mbunas. This includes live worms such as Brown Tubifex Worms or Black Worms. Click here for more about Live Black Worms.

Aquarium Maintenance
Click here for an aquarium maintenance schedule with the daily, weekly, and monthly tasks that must be done to keep your aquarium clean and to minimize the stress and disease to the fish living in your aquarium.

Growth, Maximum Size, and Life Span
Mbunas grow to a length of 1.5" to 2" in a few months, and this is the size we usually sell them. They will sometimes begin to breed a few months later, when they've grown to about 2" to 2.5", but usually start breeding when they're about a year old and have grown to about 3". Mbunas can live for many years up to a maximum of about 10 years.

The smaller Mbuna species will grow to a maximum of about 3", and the largest species will grow to about 8". Most Mbunas grow to be between 4" and 5" long.

Click here to go to another page in this web site with a short story about a beautiful aquarium with Mbunas that was in a restaurant named Giselle's many years ago.