Identification And A Little Advice

[tmiller]

Hi,
So being away from tanks since I was a teenager,
and not knowing much about proper keeping of fish back then I'd like to get some things straight in my head and correct for some initial problems I created for myself this time arround.

first off if some of you could help to identify the type and aggressiveness of the fish I have already brought home,
these 6 were bought from a mixed tank and are about 1"-1.25" long at the moment and are only showing mild aggressive behavior so far. I have no idea how to sex them at such a small size.
I have attached a video but will get some close ups as soon as I have time to take them properly.
Advice on compatibility ect. Would be great.

They currently are in a tank that is much to tall and much to low in volume.(30 gal 1/2 moon acrylic)
I am in the process of exchanging the 55 gal I originally bought to ultimately house them in for a 75gallon long ( almost 5' long) as I think it would be a better choice.

Is a buffering substrate absolutely necessary? I was hoping to cut some cost by using silica sand. My tap water has a ph of 7.4ish
As for stocking , I plan to up the number a bit to slightly overstocked eventually if needed to temper aggression...

I'm loving the personality of these fish but will need some direction to make sure they are as comfortable as they can be.
Thanks for your input.

Here is the video, the tank is a bit of a mess as it was taken directly after a water change.

 

[Malawi MaD]

Hi Tmiller.

Well you have got Malawi (Mbuna) African cichlids (my favourite fish
Firstly the fish in the video are as follows, the blue with vertical stripes is a metriaclima lombardoi (Aggressive species).. The other blue with horizontal stripes is a melanochromis cyaneorhabdos (maingano) Another relatively aggressive species. The yellow with black horizontal stripes is another melanochromis species (Auratus) The Yellow looks to be a Labidochromis caeruleus and finally the orange could be a metriaclima estherae (red zebra) Hard to tell at that size though.

Stock wise Id keep one of the melanochromis species not both as ideally to keep 2 of these species together you'd need a very large aquarium. The Lombardoi can be a nightmare but so can most mbuna as each fish are individual so that's up to you. The labs and red zebra's may interbreed with one another due to the slight similarities in colouration so id suggest maybe keeping one or the other. Best thing to to do now is to up the numbers of each of the species. Ratio's of male to female's can differ for each species and tank size, Melanochromis id suggest having 1 male only and multiple females as the females do tend to be aggressive with each other. More males are better than more females with most species, 2 males can be a problem, With 2 males 1 can totally dominate the other, but with 3 males any aggresion is split. Having more than one male encourages the alpha male to colour up as he has to protect his female, so he is showing fighting colours as well as mating colours. A single female in a group of males is harrased a lot less than a single pair, because the single male constantly chases the single female, whereas a the alpha male in a group spends more time chasing the other males, so the female gets left alone. The colours this male shows encourages the female to spawn up. Sometime a female will get chased to death because the male never colours to his best as he doesnt have to defend her, consequently she dont fancy him , if you know what I mean.

You can buffer the water simpley with baking soda then add Seachem lake salts to maintain the hardnes/PH, also a bag of coral sand in the external will help a lot. Its not really necessary unless you start keeping wilds and F1's that are a little more temperamental.

Hope this helps.

 

[tmiller]

Thank you for the detailed answer.
At this size is it possible to sex the fish? Seems getting a good look at the vent will be difficult.
I have a huge supply of these guys at my lfs right now all about the same size and plenty of all the species but would hate to get a bunch only to have to find new homes when they mature and I don't have a proper male to female radio

 

[tmiller]

Ok, after some reading looks like I may be in for it lol,

The Metriaclima lombardoi seem to have an extremely nasty disposition.. As I'm new to Mbuna's I'm hesitant here. any chance if they grow up with the others... prolly not eh?

The melanochromis cyaneorhabdos seem to be gypsies of sorts from my reading, they don't hold territories but are quite aggressive and hold any other horizontal striped chiclid as a a threat.. again maybe not so good for a beginner.. but the are so cute as babies go figure...

The Labidochromis caeruleus if that is what it is would be a perfect starter fish in my opinion , a more docile temperament and many other good points

The metriaclima estherae, again if this is what I have here may be a good starter
bit of a digger, which I'm fine with and only mid aggressive from what I read. Would like to have a powder blue male for sure

So question is, how to proceed. I am committed to a Mbuna tank but...
As I was so uninformed when I impulse bought these little guys that i now have some hard choices to make.. I wont be adding any additional tanks soon so...

Do you think I would be better served to return the lot and start over, maybe look around and see if I can find like sized less aggressive. or bring the numbers up and see how they behave as they age?
right now my lfs has literally hundreds of 1"-1.25" Mbuna's selling at $1.99 / 6 for $10 . However there is no way to know if I'm getting males or females

 

[Malawi MaD]

The Lombardio's and melanochromis species are known to be aggressive but as i said before each fish is individual. You can have any species that's a nightmare and dominates the rest of the tank. I do think The labs would be a good option for you as a first fish for your Malawi tank though, so up the numbers with these (You have 1 already) Id go get rid of the lombardio's and melanochromis species just to be on the safe side and go for something different, you could keep the red zebs but they may interbreed with the labs, depends if you want to keep the fry or not. If you don't then these 2 will be ok together. Once you get them in the 75G you will be able to have higher numbers of each species (roughly 6+ each) Maybe try take some pics of the fish at the LFS, see what they got You can thin the males out as they grow, thats not a problem but multiple males can work better with certain species.