Her there is  pictures of our Pseudotropheus Acei

     

Pseudotropheus Acei “Eccles Reef”

Pseudotropheus Acei is a Malawi mbuna cichlid from Lake Malawi, East Africa. They are schooling cichlids, which sometimes can be seen in a great number forming massive schools near logs and tree branches washed into the lake. The reason that the Ps. Acei is seen around waterlogged wood is that they eat the algae (Aufwuchs) that grow on waterlogged wood. No other cichlid species is known to exploit this specific food source. In captivity they do fine with the algae grown on rocks and eat them without problems.
 

There are different distribution areas in Lake Malawi. From Nkhata Bay and Bandawe, Acei are typical dark sparkly blue and yellow finned. The ones from Ngara, Karonga are sold as “White Tail Acei”. These are paler blue with white fins. The South Rukuru River, Ruarwe and Senga Bay Acei, these are typically very pale in coloration. The ones from Eccles Reef, has a blue/lilac colour, with yellow fins.

The graceful, rather elongate shape and beautiful pastel coloration of Ps. Acei makes it favorite cichlids for many hobbyists, but also the fact that it is a peaceful mbuna that like to stay out of trouble make them a good choice for the novice at keeping Malawi cichlids. We have 8 Acei, and we have never seen any sign of aggression between them or toward the other tank mates.

  
  It is a funny fish that are very friendly, lively and curious, when we feed them they are the first to get to the food, sometime they get so excited that they swim into the small container (were I have soak the food), before I have time to get the food out of the container. They are not shy, we never she them hiding, they also like to stay in the open when sleeping.

Males and females of this species are very similar in coloration. The size is 10-11 cm (4-4.5 in.). They do not need to be kept in a big aquarium, a 160L (42g) or bigger is fine. The aquarium decoration should be as naturally as possible. In the lake Ps. Acei prefers the sandy and rock filled shoreline where sunken logs are easily accessed.


Rock’s and sand will be fine, waterlogged wood is not a good idea in a aquarium with Malawi cichlids, since they prefers hard water, with a pH between 7.6-8.6, waterlogged wood might lower the hardness of the water, and the Acei do fine without the wood. You will easily get a nice growth of algae on the rock, the rocks should also provide the Aceis with some nice caves, that they will use when in need of a hiding place, or if they need to get away from anybody that might chase them. We have not seen our males taking up a territory in our tank, but other groups of Acei might, it is just not our experience. In the lake males in breeding coloration are not territorial and do not seem to build a nest.