My Mbuna Tank

[GavinB]

Hello everyone!

I have decided that as my first cichlid tank to go with a Mbuna tank.

Ive started with a couple of Labs (1 male, 1 female)

Ive also stocked with 2 white tipped Acei, a small Venustus (Which I know will eventually outgrow my 180 litre tank). These fish were purchased from Frisbies in Hull.

I also bought 11 other Mbuna from another LFS (Ings in Hull) and have been assured that all of the fish I have purchased (16 in total) will get along fine, although after some research ive read that a couple of the fish that I have bought I may have some issues with later.

Unfortunately I have not got a list together of all of the fish in the tank. (silly me)

What I will do later is post a video of all of the fish in the tank, if people are ok with this would some of you please identify the fish and explain any issues that may arise?

I tried to do as much research as possible but played a little loose with the amount of fish I purchased although I was assured by the store colleague that the fish I had selected would be absolutely fine in the tank providing I slightly overstocked and provided good filtration.

I have provided a large amount of cavework within the tank to minimize aggression as much as possible but as always these days I'm always very wary about the information provided to me from LFS as usually its information that can sometimes be a little outdated.

The tank looks amazing (imo), I bought a huge sack of Lava rock and also have some slate in there and some bog standard aquarium rocks.

Anyway, Ill get the vid up later tonight (around 6pm UK time)

As my first Cichlid tank I'm very glad that I've started with the more aggressive Mbuna and look forward to seeing the pecking order develop in the tank along with hopefully in the future the possiblity of some fry from the stunning Labs!

 

[Always Learning]

I'll try, once you get the video up.
I'd take the Venustus back though. Doesn't fit in with the rest of the stock, providing you have Mbuna.

Although the LFS has given you some right advice, ragarding the over filtering and over stocking, I wouldn't trust them on fish choice at all. Make sure you get the ones YOU want, not what they want to sell. With the 180 though, yu are limited, unless you are upgrading very soon. I'd imagine most of what you have is going to get too big for there and your numbers are quite high already, for a tank that size.

 

[GavinB]

I'm actually quite happy with the selection that I have (Out of the options which he provided me with), I had an idea that I would need to take the Venustus back although to be fair it is quite small in comparison to the other fish in there so I would imagine that predatory issues would not become apparent for a while. I am upgrading to another tank in a few months (A 300 litre or larger if I can get a hold of one for a decent price)

 

[GavinB]

Here is the video!

 

[Vainpop1317]

very nice, where can i get rocks like that ? am in florida what type of rock are those? limestone left bottom?

 

[GavinB]

The rocks in the bottom left are just standard aquarium slate. You should be able to obtain it at any half decent LFS. The centre rocks are Lava Rock.