Can i introduce these??

[The_Priest]

my tank has fully cycled without fish and my new fish which have been in over a week look settled and ok, ive worked very hard to get the water quality up which after a week of small water changes and a programme of a biological suppliment ive managed to reduce my nitrite and nitrate to bare detectable ammounts.
So i want to introduce my last and final batch of fish this is what i currently have
3 X bylenshi red fins
3X Haplochromis Ahli
2X Juvuinille Fronts (which seem alot happier sice first putting them in)
3 X malanchromis arauts

my next purchase i want are 3 psedotropehus trosephs (sorry about the spelling) or rather than trosephs going for the psedotropheus elongata, will these species be happy to live with what ive got as i know these are very aggressive, i have been told that these at first will clash with my arautus but will be perfectly fine after a few days, is this true?

manythanks

 

[yhbae]

Hmm... To me, this doesn't look like an ideal stock. Do I see peacocks, haps, Frontosas and M Auratus in the same tank? That's quite a mix!

Just out of curiosity, what is the size of the tank?

But regardless of the size, I don't think this stock will work in the long term...

 

[The_Priest]

my tank is 183ltrs which is about 50 gall i think, before i bought anyfish i drew up a shopping list and took it into 3 really reputibile dealers and they all said they would all be fine together providing i was carefull with what to introduce and when, these fish are very very small at the moment 3 or 4 cm's, the biggest of them is the 2 frontosas which my dealer said to deliberatly make them the biggest as they are the most shy and they wont get bullied due to their size, so matey where has it gone wrong?? this worries me as a beginner as ive seem to have got such conflicting advice from more than one source, lol im all confused again

 

[yhbae]

Looks like you've got some bad advices from your dealers - some of the fishes you have don't belong in the 55g tank.

Frontosa gets really big - far too big for the tank of that size. Also they are often not compatible with mbuna (such as Auratus) as they are slow moving while mbunas are psychos. It will drive Frontosa nuts.

Personally, I wouldn't put M Auratus in a 55g either - they are one of the most aggressive mbuna known. It will probably beat your peacock to death at some point later on.

I don't know much about S Ahli, but they are supposed to be quite aggressive and will probably grow too large for 55g as well, at 7 inches.

If you want to keep your Peacocks, you should go with more peaceful species. Otherwise, you should re-think of your stocking plan. Either way, Frontosa and Auratus should not be kept in that tank for too long...

 

[The_Priest]

crickey what have i done!! lol well thats wht you get for discvering these forums too late!

 

[yhbae]

Better to discover this now when all fishes are alive than when it is dead...

 

[The_Priest]

where can a beginner go to find out more about species compatibility? ive got an excellent book on malawis but to be honest doesnt go into much detail on peacocks or zebras? seeing as ive been given some very bad advice by my LFS mbe you can put me onto a more reliable source?

many thanks

 

[yhbae]

where can a beginner go to find out more about species compatibility? ive got an excellent book on malawis but to be honest doesnt go into much detail on peacocks or zebras? seeing as ive been given some very bad advice by my LFS mbe you can put me onto a more reliable source?

many thanks

There are rather many sources on the net which provides profiles of species, one of them being this:

http/www.aquahobby.org/e_gallery.php

These days, I simply go to google.com and type the full name of the fish and there will be tonnes of hits on them. (and its free)

Perhaps what you can do is to look at the link above (which has pictures), list what you are interested (make sure it doesn't grow to a foot!), then re-post on this forum and see if it would work out given the size of your tank. Many people do it here and listen to other opinions/facts...