hi everyone im new and i need your help im wondering if i have to many fish in my tank i have 2 male hongis 1 female,4 eletric blues,4 eletric yellows,2 bristle noses,2golden heads,2 black fish i dont know what there called,4 manganoes,2 peacocks.
i have a 3ft tank 140 litres.
And im trying to breed my hongis and im wondering if its a bad idea having 2 male and 1 female. can you guys give me some tipes on how to make them breed and what do i have to do?
And how do you tell between a female hongi and a male.
thanks guys.
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I'd say your tank is not only overstocked but is entirely unsuitable for all the species you have listed (with the exception of the bn plecs). Both peacocks and mbuna need at least a 4-ft tank 55gal (208 litres), you can get by in a 3-ft if it is wider that most standard 3ft tanks. Your tank however, is about 37US gal and while it is recommended to overstock mbuna (not peacocks however) there is a fine line between overstocked and fish just crammed into too small of a tank.
If we break it down to adult sizes:
hongi (
Labidochromis sp. "Hongi" x 3 = 18"
electric blues, this common name can be given up to 8 different species, but the most common is
Sciaenochromis fryeri x 4 = 28"
electric yellows, most likely
Labidochromis caeruleus x 4 = 20"
bristlenose pleco x 2 = 10"
The only gold head cichlid I found with google is a Lake Tangnikya species,
Altolamprologus compressiceps, x 2 = 10"
manganoes, I'm guessing you mean
Melanochromis cyaneorhabdos (aka Maingano) x 4 = 16"
Peacocks, most reach around 5-7" so we'll average it, x 2 = 12"
That's 114" of adult fish (not including the 2 unknown black ones) in a 37 gal tank!
While we certainly don't follow the 1" per gallon guideline with mbuna, even by standard overstocking practices that's pretty shocking. I would be interested in seeing what your ammonia/nitrite/nitrate levels are.
My advice would be to rehome all the fish or upgrade to a minimum 6 ft tank. If you do not want to do that, I would suggest upgrading to at least a 55gal and rehoming 1 male
Labidochromis sp. "Hongi" (and adding at least 2 more females), the electric blues (if they are indeed
S.fryeri as I suspect), the peacocks, the mystery black fish and the Gold head. That would leave you with 1m/3f hongi, 4
L.caeruleus, 4 Maingano (hopefully 1m/3f) and 2 bn pleco which would be suitable stocking for a 55gal.
However, if you are seriously wanting to breed the hongi for sale, you should set up a species only tank with them, as hybridization with mbuna is always possibly (even with fish that look different) and it is unethical to add any more hybrids on the market. A 4ft is minimum, though if you have more than 1 male (not recommended) a 6ft would be better.
To answer your question on sexing hongi, males have a light blue body with dark, vertical bars. The bars continue onto the upper lip. Their dorsal fins can be yellow to orange. Subdominant males and females are brown purple.
