New To Africans.

[kniesh]

People are probably sick of me changing my mind now, but I have again. Since I got this 4x2x1.5 90gal my first choice was african Cichlids, I then changed my mind and originally set it up as a South American Cichlid, I became restless with this and changed again to a community os small fish. Then! (stop talking I hear u say) I decided on oddballs. The problem i have is I just dont see any of my fish enough so i have decided now on the personality of African Cichlids, which was my first choice anyway. This is all in 6 months btw.

anyway, the local, small shop by me has a small little collection of Africans to start me off and he will take my fish off me for credit which is a bonus. What i'm after here is the type of Bio i should keep with this size tank. I know its not the biggest tank but it seems quite a reasonable size for this kind of set up.

So far my options seem to be;

Lake Malawi (tank seems about the right size for these)
Lake Victoria riverine
Lake Tanginikian

so just wanted a small discussion really on each set up for this tank size. It will probably be a Mbuna tbh and I am going tomorrow to change it over hopefully. I have a bag of crushed coral to put in which will hopefully raise the Ph, and a fair bit of Ocean Rock also. Thx in advance.

 

[cuprajake]

first off hi

i have just moved from planted to cichilds, if you can get the water sorted first without the fish in there,

do your rock stuff and get it how you want then you need to raise the water to a ph of 8 ish, you do this by adding bicarb to a bucket of tank water then allowing it to mix, this inturn will raise the kh of the water,

to also raise the gh/kh people use epsom salts again you mix this into a bucket of tank water and drip back in,

apparently no matter how much bicarb you add it will only get up to 8.2 for some reason, wether this is fact i dont know, the gh/kh want to be up in the early to mid teens really but it depend upon your water.

people also use seachem malawi salts instead of epsom salts as it has more trace elements in it,

right so now you tanks is good for them next bet is fish.

they reccomend a ratio of 1 male to 3 females or more

what you choose is up to you but be careful, my lfs who i had all my fish off sold me mbuna,haps and peacocks, now the hap has died due to different dietry needs which i did not know untill he was in the tank.

where abouts are you?? there maybe someone lurking right around the corner who specialise,

try looking here http/www.lakemalawi.co.uk/forum/index.php think the server is down at the mo, but very helpful site.

any other stuff just ask, but dont forget im learning to hehe


jake

 

[kniesh]

Thx for the reply Jake. I almost definately want some Yellow Labs and probably some red zebras. I know these arent the most aggressive or largest of Mbunas, will this effect the tankmates I can safely add as I wouldn't mind a few larger species?

Btw this definately the last time this tank gets changed. I am really looking forward to this one. I will definately be adding photos as I go along as well.

Sorry I'm in Liverpool, tbh the Maidenhead aquatics isnt too far from me and they have a, seemingly, very good collection which i will move onto once I have started in the other shop.

 

[cuprajake]

saulosi are also a small breed the males/females are stripy yellow and blues.

if you have a look here http/www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/cookie_cutter_75g.php

tells you what will go, also look at that forum also good for info http/www.cichlid-forum.com

jake

 

[kniesh]

Phoned the fish shop before to confirm, and he said he will definately take my old stock, so, I will be adding my soda in the morning, the tank is already cycled besides this so should be all systems go to start adding my rock, which will probably be a bit at a time once I've got the bits I have in there.

Out of curiosity will me adding that crushed coral you get for a marine tank help with the PH. i still have it in the basement from a long time ago so may as well put it to some use if it'll work.

Just found a profile on a Blueberry/Metriaclima sp. zevra blue. Really want one of these, does anyone know how available they are?

 

[Ferris]

Sounds like you're pretty set on Mbuna and who can blame you - stunning fish and my personal favourites when it comes to Africans.

OK so far you like the look of labs (Labidochromis Caeruleus), red zebra's (Metriaclima Estherae) and i'm guessing the last one (blueberry) is actually Metriaclima Callainos. (If it is Callainos, most LFS that stock Mbuna should have them - very popular)

Those 3 should mix together fine and if you fancy Saulosi - that should also work. The ratio of 1 male -3 females is ideal.

There are so many species available i would suggest researching to find what you liike the look of and also what you can get hold of locally and then posting your suggestions here for some good advice on compatibility etc.

You should be able to aim at somewhere around 25 adult Mbuna quite comfortably in that size tank and maybe a few more. A couple of Syno's or BN Plecs also wouldn't go amiss as bottom-feeders.

Crushed coral should raise your PH but may not be enough to take it above 8. I now use Tropic Marin pro-cichlid mineral as a buffering agent, which also adds lots of trace minerals/elements found naturally in Lake Malawi. A Ph above 8 isn't essential as most Mbuna in the trade are tank bred and can survive in anything above 7 - i'm a bit of a purist though and try to create as natural an environmnet as possible.

Here's some useful links:

http/www.fishforums.net/Cichlids-African-f41.html
http/www.fishforums.net/The-Mbuna-Aquarium-t27706.html
http/www.fishforums.net/Members-African-...ks-t169788.html
http/www.cichlid-forum.com/profiles/category.php?cat=2

Anyway hope that helps and keep the questions coming - there's loads of Mbuna-keepers on here now and everyone will chip in.

 

[kniesh]

Thx for ur replies so far guys. I hve an external filter at the minute, as well as an internal (quite powerful in itself). Would I be better just taking out the carbon and putting the crushed coral in. I'm thinking this is probably gonna be bettr than mixing it in the substrate right?

Ok so it was my last day in work today so I done as little as possible, giving me time to make up this list of fish. (I mean I done no work at all) It's a bit long winded sorry, just need some compatibility advice really. I am going the shop tomorrow to take my other fish back and will probably get about 5 labs then to start things off, plus my Syno already in my 40 gal can move in, along with 2Bn's in this one already.

Rusty Cichlid-Ladotropheus sprengerae

Blue caeruleus Yellow Lab---Labidochromis caeruleus

Red Top Kimpuma---Lab sp. Hongi
Yellow bar, Pearl of Tangania---Lab perlmat
Yellow Top mbamba---" " mbamba
Mpanga Red- " " trewavasae

Malawi Pike Cichlid-- Melanochromis chipokae
Maingano---Melanochromis cyaneorhabdos

Ice Blue-----Metriaclima grshakei
albino Ice Blue
OB Clown--Metriclima sp. Zebra
Blueberry--Metriclima sp. Zebra Blue

Some kind of Chilumba

Yellow Tail Acei---Pseudotropheus sp. acei (top dweller really wanted)
Bumblebee---Pseudotropheus crabo
Williamsi Blue Lips---Pseudotropheus sp. williamsi north (really want one of these)

Anyway, thats all I had time to get through as ur aware it would take days for me to get through them all. I have tried to keep them in families to help although it still looks a mess to me. Some kind of compatibility advice for all these would be much appreciated. Thx in advance. Oh sorry forgot to say that one you used to have as ur avator Ferris. I had the name and lost it. Blue an black stripes with the yellow on it.

And there's more.

African Peacock Marble. This is by far the best I've seen so far.
blue dolphin
Girrafe
Neyereri, this runs the Peacock very close.

 

[Ferris]

Pretty much all the species you've mentioned there should be fine in a mixed Mbuna community with a couple of exceptions.

Melanochromis Chipokae - Arguably the most aggressive Mbuna species - Only get 1 if you decide to go with them and be aware that it will become the tank boss.

African Peacock Marble. This is by far the best I've seen so far.
blue dolphin
Girrafe
Neyereri, this runs the Peacock very close.

I would forget all of the above if you plan to mix them with Mbuna.

Peacocks - generally struggle with Mbuna aggression and are Carnivores and therefore require a completely different diet to most Mbuna - possible but difficult.

Blue dolphin (Cyrtocara moorii) - same as above.

Giraffe (Nimbochromis venustus) - same as above and also get much larger than Mbuna and is an open water predator, which at an adult size could well turn the tables on the Mbuna in the tank.

Pundamilia Nyererei - Possible but again is a Carnivore so feeding will be a problem. Nyererei are from Lake Victoria.

Many people suggest not mixing Labidochromis species but i personally have never had any issues doing this as most are at the lower end of the aggression scale with the exception being Hongi.

The fish from my old Avatar is Pseudotropheus Demasoni and i would advise the same as the Chipokae - either 1 single specimin or a species only tank due to their highly aggressive nature. Note Demasoni don't have yellow in them bit there are several P.Elongatus species that are similar in appearance and do have yellow such as P.Elongatus Mpanga.

I would certainly replace the carbon with the crushed coral in your filter. As the tank is going to be overstocked (Mbuna tanks should be) make sure you have plenty of filtration - something around 8-10 x per hour turnover.

 

[kniesh]

Thx for the help Ferris. Just catching my fish now so I will have 5 Yellow labs probably when I get back. Gonna get the least aggressive first and work up. This is right isnt it? Got to say it is a massive challenge remembering names and then putting those names to juvenile fish in the shop, which isn't the greates labelled tbh but the guy is very genuine. Don't worry I wont buy anything that he doesn't know anything about, there are some young fish he has in tho (he gets all his africans from a private breeder), he has a pic of them when they're bigger and they are great looking but he couldn't remember their name. I am going to buy one as he will deffo take it back if I want and hopefully within a couple of days I will have identified it with ur help Thx again m8. I will be posting pics but unfortunately this will have to be on Sunday at the earliest.

 

[Ferris]

Adding the least aggressive fish 1st is definitely a good idea - let them settle before the bad boys get introduced.

You'll get used to the latin/scientific names and you'll need to with Mbuna as the common names are useless. For example "electric blue" potentially covers around 8 completely different species and at least 2 different genus.

 

[kniesh]

Ok, got a bit more in credit than was expected so I got more fish than anticipated but this shouldn't really be a problem as the tank is fully matured. So far I have;

5x Labidochromis caeruleus (Yellow Labs)
1x " " " " Albino
3x Metriaclima estherae (Red Zebra) One has a very distinct purple throughout his face.
2x waiting to get pics for I.D
1x Metriaclima greshakei (Ice Blue)

I have pput about 6 te spoons of Bicarbonate soda in and also added the crushed coral in the filter where the carbon was. Cant wait to get to the Maidenhead now as they have a much bigger choice. I will post pics when I can.

 

[Ferris]

Sounds good.

The albino is probably an albino Pseudotropheus Socolofi. Does it look anything like this?

http/www.cichlid-forum.com/profiles/species.php?id=1786

 

[kniesh]

No, its not white, it's more of a orangey yellow with red eyes. The guy said it was a lab and the closest I could find is this.

http/www.cichlid-forum.com/profiles/species.php?id=1668

 

[kniesh]

Ok guys. Promised pics so here they are. Not the greatest quality, I really need to buy a new cam.

Ok guys, please ignore the tank, in the process of buying a suitable stand and the sheet ws a temp measure. I would really like some help too please. I'm pretty sure those aren't Red Zebras I have, they are definately more of Yellow, could anyone help with that and the silver fish with the black line running through it. These are juvies but apparently grow up a nice purpley colour. I think thats it. I bought a Chameleon/Bumblebee yesterday, hes in one of th pics and an electric blue too, also in there with my newly aquired Rusty too. Thoughts very welcome thx.

The 5th pic one I need I.D for, it has purple splashes all over it and the 6th pic is the one I thought was a Red Zebra.

 

[dthoffsett]

Looking good . The blue fish with the darker blue horizontal stripe in the 10th pic looks like a male johannii to me. http/www.cichlid-forum.com/profiles/species.php?id=760
I'm pretty sure you red zebras are m.estherae, juveniles and mature males are more yellow than orange.
http/www.cichlid-forum.com/profiles/species.php?id=1730
I can see the bumblebee (p.crabro) in the 9th pic in front of the driftwood.
http/www.cichlid-forum.com/profiles/species.php?id=845

Can't tell on the albino or silver with out clearer pics.