dithers for mbuna

[Iron Man]

Well for me...the tiger stripe and the way they behaved in the tank, just added to the "wild" theme of the tank. They didn't look out of place if you were judging solely by looks. They should do just fine in a tank with mbunas as long as you get say 6 or more.

I will say though....with your fish number maybe you SHOULD get more mbunas first....it is just overall a better idea to pack more numbers in there then you have. THEN if you still wanna add a little somethin somethin to that....the tiger barbs would fit right in and provide some schooling action, and provide that much more "dither" quality to their world.

Personally....the best concept I have ever seen in an african cichlid set up is to have mainly blue or purple fish, and some yellows to accent....OR vise versa. Another top concept is to pack a tank full of demasonis....as long as there is enough space to do this.

Good luck with whatever you do.....you're making miss my old mbuna setup.

 

[wrs]

having the mbuna makes memiss my south american setup, lol, probably because of the stores not selling many mbuna, and the lfs with a no guarentee if it died, even if it dies in the store when in the bag, you would not get your money back.

How many would be a good number of the fish? I read 12, but I have also read 15, and then some also had 20, so I am not exactly sure as of how many to get.

 

[Iron Man]

Also I have to add....if it were me....i'd get more synos in there, I'd never put one in there by himself. I had a number of clown loaches in there with mine, and sometimes they schooled around with the tiger barbs and vise versa because they'd get confused. But that's another story.

 

[wrs]

the ones the lfs sells are tiny, and mine is semi big for me at least, wouldnt they kill the tiny fish?

I was thinking of getting one though, as they are cute little things.

 

[Iron Man]

How many mbuna? If it were me I would have around 20 in there, depending on rockwork, swimming room, filtration, water change schedule, etc.

I would have at least 15 mbunas in there.

With that many you shouldn't have to have anything to dither...maybe just a few catfish for the bottom.

Altogether I had 28 fish in my 55 gallon and I did 30% changes every 3 days. It worked out great and the fish were very healthy and happy.

 

[wrs]

I am trying to post a pic of the tank, so yall can see, but I cant upload the pics, and I have NO idea why at all.

 

[Iron Man]

the ones the lfs sells are tiny, and mine is semi big for me at least, wouldnt they kill the tiny fish?

I was thinking of getting one though, as they are cute little things.

He should be just fine in there. I agree they are some of the best looking catfishes.

 

[wrs]

see, 2 christmas time I had three cichlids, really tiny ones in my 29, 2 artus and 1 zebra, they were my brothers, and I added a pleco in there and they killed it, so I always feel war about adding anything apart from mbuna to the tank.

But the pleco was a rubber lip. I am hoping to add a pleco in there.

any other non mbuna that would work? Like other catfish types?

 

[vantgE]

Synodontis euruptus are not schooling catfish so wrs should actually be fine leaveing it alone, I think a pleco would be fine in the tank if you wanted, i'd agree with a fifteen ish number of mbuna, as long as you have adequate filtration

 

[Iron Man]

I've never seen a schooling syno....but they do feel better when there are more of their own kind in the tank. I understand about not getting another syno eupturus though....those are very expensive where I am and they get rather large (if its the one I'm thinking of).

I had two common plecos in the tank with mine, bought them small, and of course I still had to trade them in because they were getting too big rather quickly. But they did just fine.

I don't know about the other catfish, but I have heard pictus cats go very well with mbuna, though I wouldn't put one with smaller ones as they could very easily fit into a larger pictus' mouth. And trust me.....pictus get large QUICK.

Whatever you do, do not put cory cats in there. The mbunas will pick/harass them to death. They will not last long.

 

[vantgE]

I think plecos are enough of a risk, pretty much all synos are schoolers except euruptus and nigrita, though not exactly the same as a tetra, with other synos it's likely you will never see theem unless you keep four or more

 

[wrs]

my lfs sells baby euruptus for 8.99, but I did get mine on sale for 6.99 at PetSmart, and it is a hardy catfish, the onlf fish of mine that had ich and beat it!

My brother has a pleco that we thought was a common pleco, but after having it for one year, it didnt grow at all, is that normal? Its not like it doesnt have room to grow, it is in a 55 gallon.

 

[vantgE]

Plecos aren't really fast growers like cichlids you might not have noticed but I don't really know haven't kept one

 

[Iron Man]

A common pleco will quickly outgrow your tank 55 gallon. If he wasn't getting enough algae to eat it may not grow as well or as fast. I was feeding mine algae disks as they made short work of the algae in my tank....and I had two of them. A lot of people don't think to do this. It could have been something other than common, though.

 

[wrs]

it probably is.