Mbuna Newbie Question

[odannyboy]

been reading up on mbuna setups.i have a 90 gallon four foot tank.i read these fish are all very aggressive to greater or lesser extent, and set up and rations are very immportant.my question is this what are the odds of seting a tank up from scratch first time around having done lots of research and not loosing any fish or how many fish could i expect to loose? i am worried by tales of " perfect "set ups for 6months that have then changed overnight out of the blue.pls enlighten me!

 

[adambrum]

Tough question the problem is that the cichlids have personalities which makes them great to keep but you can always get a physco fish which can just turn for no reason.

If you have done your research well then you should not lose any but this is not a definite, most of the stories about tanks just turning nasty is down to poor species selection, so many people say the melanochromis is fine and they cant see what the fuss is about when we say keep away from this species 6 months later when its got to adulthood trouble starts and so does the killing.

Its best to add your stocking list on here, there is a lot of people on here who have kept most species and can guess how they will behave.

I lost a lot of fish when i first started thanks to a lfs advice

 

[odannyboy]

is it right to say tho that mbuna tank ownership would mean losing "the odd fish"?i mean is that to be expected? i just really dont like the idea of having fish die.i dont have access to any other tanks to move victims to before things got to bad.so it all rides on them getting along.

 

[dthoffsett]

is it right to say tho that mbuna tank ownership would mean losing "the odd fish"?i mean is that to be expected? i just really dont like the idea of having fish die.i dont have access to any other tanks to move victims to before things got to bad.so it all rides on them getting along.

Nothing in life is certain, this can't be more true than with mbunas. As long as you are careful with the stocking, you should be ok, but you simply can't predict what any individual fish will do.

Please do not take this the wrong way as I mean no offense, but if the possibility of losing a fish to aggression upsets you that much, perhaps you should go with some other kind of fish.

 

[PufferFishRule]

id start with malawis a tad bit easier on the aggression ...Mbunas are not for the begginer....i have a malawi setup and havnt lost a fish to un-natural causes yet

 

[Ferris]

id start with malawis a tad bit easier on the aggression ...Mbunas are not for the begginer....i have a malawi setup and havnt lost a fish to un-natural causes yet

Mbuna are Malawi's, indeed when people refer to fish as Malawi's they are more often than not talking about Mbuna. Mbuna is a term used to describe the largest species group that inhabit Lake Malawi.

You have Mbuna species in your tank looking at your profile, Acei for example.

 

[PufferFishRule]

he a mbuna.............damn them LFS fella's...oh well hes kool lil fish

 

[odannyboy]

now im lost? i know what mbuna are, but are there other malawi species that are calmer?not shellies tho.to small.did that guy mean tanganyican?

 

[Ferris]

There are other Malawi cichlid species besides Mbuna, examples being Haplochromis and Aulonocara.

Both these genus are genarally less aggressive than Mbuna but tend to be much larger, especially the Haps.

Shelldwellers are indeed from Lake Tanganyika.