My Planned Mbuna Stock
- Thread starter creg
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HappyGeorge
Fish Herder
Looks ok to me with a few bewares. I wanted Socolofi and it took me ages to find any nice ones, in the end I ordered them at my LFS, 3 beautiful specimens turned up and were fine in the tank for a week or so and although they all had egg spots 2 had very pale ones that were on the fin edge similar to some of my other breeding mbuna females. However it would appear they were all males and killed by the dominant one. No hassle with other fish but after my exp I would rate their inter species aggression as off the scale.
The Cynotolapia Afra are lovely I have red tops and never seen those Jalo Reef ones, but again mine can be aggressive, The male Afra is the tanks bouncer and breaks up all other fights, no one fights in his tank unless it's him. He won't even tolerate anyone having a little go at the Haps, but in the early days I had 2 males and a female and had to take one of the males out, initially thought he was a female who wouldn't mate as he never showed any barring and was always flat dark blue colour, took him to the LFS and he instantly barred up and was a lovely buy for someone. The other 2 are my main breeders and have produced a lot of fry, I let them spit in the tank and then just fish out what survives to 2-3" long, once they get any bigger than that the males get hassle from Big Daddy and the tank goes native until I can seperate them.
Synos Multiplunctus is nice, I have 5 in my 100G and late evening after they have cleared all the rogue food from under the rocks they all come out and swim together in the flow from my powerhead.
Anyone else see the similarities between Mbuna tanks and the local High Street after the Nightclubs kick out? Lots of creatures with very small brains milling about looking for either something to eat or someone smaller to pick on.
The Cynotolapia Afra are lovely I have red tops and never seen those Jalo Reef ones, but again mine can be aggressive, The male Afra is the tanks bouncer and breaks up all other fights, no one fights in his tank unless it's him. He won't even tolerate anyone having a little go at the Haps, but in the early days I had 2 males and a female and had to take one of the males out, initially thought he was a female who wouldn't mate as he never showed any barring and was always flat dark blue colour, took him to the LFS and he instantly barred up and was a lovely buy for someone. The other 2 are my main breeders and have produced a lot of fry, I let them spit in the tank and then just fish out what survives to 2-3" long, once they get any bigger than that the males get hassle from Big Daddy and the tank goes native until I can seperate them.
Synos Multiplunctus is nice, I have 5 in my 100G and late evening after they have cleared all the rogue food from under the rocks they all come out and swim together in the flow from my powerhead.
Anyone else see the similarities between Mbuna tanks and the local High Street after the Nightclubs kick out? Lots of creatures with very small brains milling about looking for either something to eat or someone smaller to pick on.
bullit
Fish Addict
dont quote me as im not 100 percent but im sure trios are a bad number incase you get 2 males and one female.
OP
OP
creg
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what if i get 4 and only 1 female, wouldnt that be worse?
guess i could go with pairs instead if need be
bullit
Fish Addict
As said im not 100 percent sure. With american ciclids, normally if you get a pair in a trio, the odd one will get bullied. You might have to buy a few of each and see what happens, and if the fighting gets bad then separate the males. You might be able to buy them sexed.
Someone else might be able to help and tell me im wrong lol.
Someone else might be able to help and tell me im wrong lol.
HappyGeorge
Fish Herder
The problem is accurate sexing as youngsters, and even then I have females with eggspots. I do have a trio of Labs and a trio of Perlmutts and they are fine. Im pretty sure from what I have witnessed that even if you went with 5 you could end up with 4 males and a female and therefore the same problems.
Bullit is pretty much right that 3 is the worst number if only for the statistical chances of ending up with 2 males and 1 female.
More is generally better with some notable exceptions (people say Demasoni should be 1 or about a dozen) problem is most of us don't want huge numbers of the same fish in our tanks.
Bullit is pretty much right that 3 is the worst number if only for the statistical chances of ending up with 2 males and 1 female.
More is generally better with some notable exceptions (people say Demasoni should be 1 or about a dozen) problem is most of us don't want huge numbers of the same fish in our tanks.
ddgbumblebee
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I believe that this 'ratio' also depends on how you stock them initially. If you buy three of one species and gradually stock up every few weeks, depending on whether you do actually get males and how large your tank is, it could end in disaster. My first mbuna setup was going to consist of larger groups and I started adding fish, first it was three Ps. crabro and guess what my combination turned out to be?
Three males, just perfect - within a week the whole lot were dead and my tank was well setup; large (nearing 100g) with lots of rockwork.
Just a word of warning: buy all stock at once and perform water changes until water chemistry is stable or add larger groups of particular species at once (hopefully starting from the least aggressive.)
Dylan
Good luck with your aquarium
Three males, just perfect - within a week the whole lot were dead and my tank was well setup; large (nearing 100g) with lots of rockwork.
Just a word of warning: buy all stock at once and perform water changes until water chemistry is stable or add larger groups of particular species at once (hopefully starting from the least aggressive.)
Dylan
Good luck with your aquarium
HappyGeorge
Fish Herder
If you have decent turnover in your tank (I have about 22x with powerhead) and you have matured your filter properly then it should cope with a good few fish at once especially if they are youngsters. You're brave bumblebee starting with 3 x Crabro I have one who turned out to be female but had always read that they are very high on the aggression scale and only to keep a single specimen. I added my stock about 6-8 at a time with short gaps and just moving a few bits of rock about as I put them in to keep everyone confused. I have also had success in stocking with new juves recently. I added an eye biter, an albino zebra and a fenestratus easten. They all looked quite big in the shop but when I got them home they looked more like a snack for the others, but no bullying, as Bumblebee said if you have enough rockwork then everyone can escape (I reckon I have well over 200kg of rock in mine). You really never can tell for sure, they all have their own personalities and what works for one person may be disaster for others. Only last week I lost a L.Perlmutt and I have no idea why, no disease it was just floating one morning I assume due to aggression but had never been either bullied or a bully and was a female, it had been fine only 7 hours previously?
Looks good.
The idea is to try and get the 1m 2f ratio. But in practice, it is almost impossible.
When I got my scolofi from an experienced breeder, I asked for 1m/2f, but ended up with 3 males! Not his fault. They are just difficult to sex, especially when small.
There was a bit of chasing, but nothing too bad.
But it also depends on which species you have.
As has been said above, Ps crabro are really mean!
But looking at your stocklist they are not the highly aggressive species.... but you do get some "difficult" individuals
The idea is to try and get the 1m 2f ratio. But in practice, it is almost impossible.
When I got my scolofi from an experienced breeder, I asked for 1m/2f, but ended up with 3 males! Not his fault. They are just difficult to sex, especially when small.
There was a bit of chasing, but nothing too bad.
But it also depends on which species you have.
As has been said above, Ps crabro are really mean!
But looking at your stocklist they are not the highly aggressive species.... but you do get some "difficult" individuals
/www.midlandsmalawis.co.uk/index.php some are sexed and sold in pairs but most arnt so i`ll just have to try my luck i guess, thanks for the feedback guys.ddgbumblebee
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I just had to comment on this statement and say how true it really is. Mbuna can and will be very unpredictable even if your dealing with a 'peaceful' species. I have had friends, for example, keep yellow labs with very aggressive species like auratus and the labs were the ones taking control attacking them. All of them were the same size but, once again, just wanted to really highlight this point as it is so true.
james41683
Fish Crazy
How big is the tank you plan to keep these in? You want to aim for 1m/3f of each species, except the labs and rusty, males of these two get along pretty good with one another. The best was to get the correct ratio is to buy a handful of juvies and work out a deal with the store to trade in unwanted males as it because apparent which are which. The only reliable way to sex them would be to vent each one.
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