Getting new 50 gallon

[yvez9]

I have no idea what my pH is right now, but i will check it out.

I'm getting a 50 gallon tank next week and will maybe set it up Mbuna.

I do have a few questions however.

Which are the most popular species for Mbuna and which would you recommend to a Mbuna newbie?

I will most likely buffer it with baking soda as it seems quite easy and cheap.

I will use a dark sand substrate with lots of rocks for decorations.

Would I be able to keep cories with these fish. and what about a pleco?

I don't want my fish to fight to death or anything, but I would appreciate a colorful tank with maybe a few territorial fights. As far as breeding goes, for now, i'm not really interested but maybe in a few months. Is there anything particular to breeding besides having a growout tank?

 

[modernhamlet]

I recently got my 75g mbuna tank up and running successfully and have learned a lot. To respond to your points:

Which are the most popular species for Mbuna and which would you recommend to a Mbuna newbie?

The most popular seems to be Labidochromis caerelus (Yellow Lab). I personally own 4 (quite small) juveniles and they constantly amaze me with their resourcefulness. These are only 3/4" fish, dwarfed by their 1.5" - 2.5" tankmates. But they are remarkable, even this early, in getting along with everyone, staying out of the way, and making sure they get their share of food without a hassle. I'm looking forward to them maturing. They're basically a good fish for almost any mbuna setup.

The other species I can already recommend is the Psuedotropheus acei. They are a truly beautiful fish. Transluscent purple with deep yellow fins. And they hang out more at the top of the tank, often in schools, instead of in the rocks. Which means (I'm guessing) that they make great dither fish for an mbuna tank.

I will most likely buffer it with baking soda as it seems quite easy and cheap.

I buffer with the recipe shown here. All of the ingredients are easy to find and cheap. My fish seem quite happy and content so far in this water (pH 8.3, kH 225ppm, gH 120ppm, give or take).

I will use a dark sand substrate with lots of rocks for decorations.

The more rocks, the better. Giving them a real rock superstructure, with plenty of caves and passages, has made the first few weeks great. My catfish (Synodontis petricola) can always be seen darting out into the light along a rock face, looking for food. The way they look, swim, and interact is unlike the mbuna, which is a good contrast.

Would I be able to keep cories with these fish. and what about a pleco?

Corys are not capable of withstanding the aggression in even the mildest mbuna tank. They are also sensitive to salts that would be common in a mbuna tank. Some plecs can however be kept with mbuna. Though I would encourage you to spend a little more and get some Rift Lake catfish, the bristlenose plec is small enough for your tank and can tolerate the aggression and water conditions well.

Wow. Sorry to talk your ear off. Hope that helps!

 

[modernhamlet]

Oh, one additional point...

Algae can become a bit of a problem. Keeping the water clear can be tough, as algae tend to thrive given enough light. The problem isn't the coating on the rocks (which the mbuna DO in fact graze, which is cool to see), it's the green cloudy tint to the water. Try not to overfeed and keep the # of hours the tank is lit to a minimum, no more than 10 hours/day.

 

[freddyk]

Other species worth Considering that can go well with the ones MH mentioned:

Pseudotropheus Saulosi
Pseudotropheus Socolofi
Iodotropheus Sprengerae
Maylandia Estherae

Of course there are hundreds of species of mbuna, so see what you can get locally.. and double check before buying them, to make sure they're compatable.

As far as your water goes, test it first, then decide what to do about it. Buffer recipes are often not necessary, With a stable PH of 7.8 I certainly don't bother with it. Only if your PH is less then 7.5, or the KH less then 5 or so, it is not necessary to do mess with the water. Also, many people feel the need to raise the GH, which is also unneeded. Even in the wild these fish don't live in very hard water, despite what the internet community has come to believe. (The GH lake Malawi has been measured as low as 1, and usually not higher then 5)

In addition, since my mbuna aquariums are overstocked, buffers are less necessary because the water is changed out often enough to prevent PH drops in the first place.
There's nothing wrong with with using buffers, of course, my point is that sometimes this hobby is unnecessarily complicated by hobbiests.

As for that suspended algae problem - lots of water changes! Mbuna tanks tend to be overstocked, you can't do enough water changes.

For bottom feeders, many Synodontis varieties of catfish will work well, especially the popular Petricola and Multipunctatus varieties.

 

[modernhamlet]

As for that suspended algae problem - lots of water changes! Mbuna tanks tend to be overstocked, you can't do enough water changes.

Thank goodness for the Python!

 

[loafybones]

We buffered and decorated our tank, we've put about 7kg of tufa rock in to buffer the water, after about 3 days the gh was 8 and the kh was 11 (I thinkit was 11, can't remember), It's very cheap and looks good too, a pale beige in colour. The only problem is it corrodes much more rapidly than other rock.
However, after a lengthy conversation with our malawi supplier. I was informed that the majority of malawis are bred in man made ponds covered in large reflective foil sheets in the good ol' US of A or Europe somewhere, the breeders take no regard for ph gh or kh as the mineral content of the African rift lakes is not lime but volcanic minerals flowing from springs into valleys, thus creating the rift lakes; Their habitat cannot be replicated by increasing the lime content in the water.
In short, after many generations of breeding the fish have been accustomed to regular declorinated water.
Be sure to know the source of your fish though as some less common and difficult to breed in aquaria varieties are shipped directly from these Lakes and would no doubt suffer in low gh water.

See our Signature for very nice fish that are relatively easy to obtain.

Good luck and Sorry about the essay!


Rich

 

[yvez9]

Thanks for all the help guys

Next week, i'll be going to a good lfs to have my pH and gH tested as i don't feel like spending money for these test kits.

I will also take note of what they have in stock for malawi cichlids and rocks and make up a list to figure out what would work out!

I'll start off with aquascaping that's for sure.

 

[freddyk]

Next week, i'll be going to a good lfs to have my pH and gH tested as i don't feel like spending money for these test kits.

Nothing wrong with this, but if you do decide to manually adjust the water parameters you'll need kits for regular testing, unless you're willing to take regular trips to the lfs.

 

[yvez9]

I'll have water tested now and if the pH is good, then i won't bother with buffers

but if i need to use buffers, i'll buy a test kit myself so i can manage the pH

 

[yvez9]

ok
i got my aquarium yesterday

the guy gave me fine natural color gravel

its not as fine as sand of course, but would that be ok for mbuna or does it absolutely have to be sand?

 

[freddyk]

Gravel will work just fine.

 

[yvez9]

woohoo!
then gravel it will be!

the tank will be used as a guppy growout tank for now, until i am done with buying rocks. they are so expensive. landscaping places don't have lots of stock in either during winter so I'll probably have better luck waiting a few months to get them.

I'm running an aquaclear 300 right now, which is the minimum ranked filter for a 50 gallon tank. I'll be adding a fluval or eheim on there when it goes Mbuna but for guppy fry an ac 300 should be just fine.