mbuna newbie

[Fish Fingers]

hey guys im setting up a 48x18x18 inch tank and i was wondering how many mbuna i could fit in it and if i could put my bristlenose catfish with them too. also some sugestions on what types of mbuna would be good would be great.thanks.

 

[yhbae]

hey guys im setting up a 48x18x18 inch tank and i was wondering how many mbuna i could fit in it and if i could put my bristlenose catfish with them too. also some sugestions on what types of mbuna would be good would be great.thanks.

That's a great size - I wish if I had a space to accomodate that sized tank for mbuna...

How about:

- Labidochromis Caeruleus (1M:4F)
- Maylandia Estherae (1M:4F)
- Melanochromis Johanni (1M:4F) or Pseudotropheus Saulosi (1M:4F)
- Sciaenochromis Fryeri (1M:4F)

This will give you lots of yellow, blue (some with black) and orange. You could try albino Pseudotropheus socolofi which is strikingly pure white as well.

You will likely to need a good amount of rocks in the tank as well...

Good luck!

 

[copeina]

2 main ways to do it:

1) Lots of rockwork and 1 or 2 compatable species in small numbers.

or

2) No decorations and as many fish as will fit. 20 would not be too many.


The reasoning is, if there are decorations, there will be territories. If mbuna have territories, they will defend them. If there are not enough spots for each fish, they will slaughter one another. This is where africans get their bad reputations from (that and some are just naturally pshyco killers - ask for species-specific information later). So, either you keep one or two species in a tank with enough nooks and crannys for everyone, or you cram them all in so no one fish dominates.

Both are doable, though many people will argue option #2 is poor animal husbandry. It can make a stunning display, though.

As far as adding the bristlenose, I would not. They are a S. American catfish with totally different water requirements, and even if it did adapt, plecos defend themselves by being armored. A big S. American cichlid will attack a pleco and maybe rip a fin or two, but will rarely do any real damage. Mbuna fight by relentlessly picking and tearing. Your pleco would be bristle-less, eye-less, fin-less, and probably life-less in short measure. Go with a synodontis of some sort. I use petricola in my Tanganykan tanks, and something like multis or another cuckoo catfish would be your best bet.

Hope that helps,
/Kris

 

[yhbae]

About bristlenose - I do have them with my P Acei and Yellow Labs. As long as bristlenose size is decent (2+ inches), they will be ok. Once again, you need to make sure that there's some rock work for them to hide if necessary. Bristlenose in the mbuna tank hides MUCH more than the ones in my peaceful community tank where they are by far the largest fishes in the tank.

 

[Angry_Platy]

If you are going to have mbunba cichlids you need rocks and lots of them....if you don't have rocks they will still establish territories and the ones that get hassled will have nowhere to hide....

I have bristlenoses in my african tank....I also have clown loaches....one of my bristlenoses is a 4 inch female and the other 2 are about 2 inches long now.....they have been in there since they were fry...approx 1/2 an inch....the cichlids ignore them.....it is the bristlenose that flares and chases the cichlids when they try and eat the vegies or algae tablets I feed them.

The clown loaches are great with the cichlids as they mimic them all day.....

See my sig for the fish I have....it is the 75gal

My pH is 7.6....it is the lower end for what mbuna like and at the higher end for what bristlenoses and clown loaches like....in that tank I have had no deaths, no injuries, no diseases etc. It is almost like a perfect balance....all fish are happy....only issue I face is feeding the loaches their protein requirement while not giving the mbuna too much protein....this is easily achieved by feeding the mbuna their cichlid pellets at one end and feeding them loaches the bloodworms at the other....

None of my fish are aggro....except maybe the Aulonocara...they are also a lot bogger than the other fish I have in there. That said they are only aggro with each other and leave the other fish alone. The electric yellows have been known to chase the aulonocara around the tank at feed time anyways....

Provided your pH is neutral or higher you will have no toruble keeping mbunas....

Good luck

 

[aberdeen aquarist]

2) No decorations and as many fish as will fit. 20 would not be too many.
The reasoning is, if there are decorations, there will be territories. If mbuna have territories, they will defend them. If there are not enough spots for each fish, they will slaughter one another. This is where africans get their bad reputations from (that and some are just naturally pshyco killers - ask for species-specific information later).
Both are doable, though many people will argue option #2 is poor animal husbandry. It can make a stunning display, though.

where did you get that idea from?

i have never seen or heard of a malawi tank without rocks, how do you keep the pH above neutral & the hardness levels required?

surely the whole idea is to give your pets the best life they can have, the way you are suggesting will lead to nothing but aggression between the naturally territorial fish. the key to having a succesful malawi aquarium is to select which species will live HAPPILY together.

the fish are nowhere near as aggressive as you seem to suggest, maybe because you have too many in a tank with no places for them to feel safe in?


after looking at your sig, you don't even have malawis anyway!!!

 

[yhbae]

To give some credits to the original message, there are people who create breeder setup without any rocks and completely over-crowd the tank to keep aggression in check. As an example, a 36x18 breeder tank holding upwards of 30 P Demasoni and couple of Lab C together! This person, apparently has been very successful at breeding and producing fries of Demasoni, but I guess this is not what most people have in their mind when they are building mbuna tank...

In fact, I am planning to setup a similar setup too, but much less demasoni (still around 15 or so) and another species that will not conflict with them (not yellow lab!)

But for the show tank, I'd never create a setup like this...

 

[Fish Fingers]

ok guys thanks for the info. im gonna pop down to my lfs sometime soon and have a look at all their different mbunas and ill get back to you to see if they will be compatable. thanks

 

[Fish Fingers]

Ok ive got a few cichlids in mind and i was wondering if they would be compatable together. they are:

Sciaenochromis ahli (electric blue)
Labidochromis Caeruleus (yellow lab)
Maylandia estherae (red zebra)
Pseudotropheus Saulosi

The botton three should be compatable seeing yhbae reccomended them together but im not sure about the electric blues as they grow a bit bigger than the other ones.

 

[Timmy]

I certainly agree with Saulosi and Red Zebras, I would have a slight concern that the male Caeruleus might think the female Saulosi were male Caeruleus and attack them (both being yellow) – not sure though.

When I used to keep a lot of Mbuna I found a good trick was to have a very high current flow, swimming into the current seemed to distract them from fighting!

Lots of rocks, more caves than fish and varying size caves is the main thing though.

I have kept bristlenoses (for algae control) with Mbuna with zero problems.

 

[yhbae]

Ok ive got a few cichlids in mind and i was wondering if they would be compatable together. they are:

Sciaenochromis ahli (electric blue)
Labidochromis Caeruleus (yellow lab)
Maylandia estherae (red zebra)
Pseudotropheus Saulosi

The botton three should be compatable seeing yhbae reccomended them together but im not sure about the electric blues as they grow a bit bigger than the other ones.

Personally, I think that is going to be ok... If you can, try to get them as young and remove any excess as they mature. You want only 1 male on each of these species and ideally 3 or more females.

What kind of filtration do you have in this tank?

 

[Fish Fingers]

I have a canister filter that does 320 gallons an hour and an internal filter that does 185 gallons an hour(but that is really just for a current). My current is pretty strong because of the internal filter. I purposely got it because bnoses like a strong current.

 

[semper fi]

i would be more concerned with the red zebras. psuedotropheus are known crossbreeders. might find the red zebras and labs mating.

 

[PedroPSK]

I think you will be fine.
I used to have my Red Zebras with my Yellow Labs and they did not cross breed - they were together for almost 2 years. The RZ had RZ fry and the Labs had Lab fry.

I also wouldn't worry too much about the Labs and the Saulosi's. I have that combination in my 90g now and they do fine - I moved the Red Zebras to the 75g.

I'm no pro, but I think you will be fine.

good luck and keep us posted.

 

[gixer]

i have kept all the fish you suggested with no problems whatsoever with crossbreeding or aggressision

also the bristlenoses seem to work very well.