Number Of Malawi Fish In A 75g

[lgarvey]

Hi,

I have a 290 litre - I think about a 73g US gallon aquarium. And I have now about 20 fish - 3 synos, 1 peacock (aulonocara) and then the rest mbuna. They all get along great, but they're not fully grown. And looking at the size of the tank, and the amount of fish, I wonder if they'll do OK when they do reach maturity.

Any ideas of ideal stocking for a 4ft 73g tank would be good.

Cheers,
L

 

[kj23502]

21 is on the high side, imo. If it's well filtered they should be alright. And don't forget enough room to swim a little also.

And it makes a big difference what the stock is, imo. 5 acei are a lot larger than 5 afra, for example.

 

[rocknurworld2006]

can u list exact stocking .
i think u may be k with wat uve got bt defo not anymore

but as said depends on species

 

[lgarvey]

OK

1 x socolofi
1 x male auratus
3 x acei (+ one really small fry that has survived against all odds - I suspect it has super powers)
3 x syno eupterus + 1 more syno (not sure of type of small syno)
5 x pseudotropheus - not sure of types but they vary (two are really small - kenyi perhaps?)
1 x aulonocara peacock
4 x red zebra (two normal red zebra and two kind of albino red zebra)
5 x electric labs

Errr... I'm not sure how, but I have more fish than I originally thought I had. S**t.

Its' a 4ft 290L tank. They look fine now, but I'm wondering about when they grow.

L

 

[kj23502]

You may be alright. Have towards 10x filtration and keep up on water changes.

 

[rocknurworld2006]

yes ull be fine ur fully stocked though so dont add anything else

just make sure to keep up water quality

 

[kj23502]

Also, make sure you have liquid test kits. Especially nitrate (the end by product of the cycle). Know what the nitrate is in your tap water also. Test your tank but keep in mind this is a rough guess with a test that has a few specific steps to it. Depending on what your tap water nitrate is, keep the level definitely under 40ppm and even lower is better

 

[Aaron89]

will be fine, got to remember that cichlids in lake malawi are crammed into small spaces constantly fighting for the rockwork and caves etc.

synos will just stay out ofway so dont worry about them.

have good external filtration and all should be good.

Dont change the water weekly! Thats one of the worst things to do.

Only change the water if there is an issue with its quality. Get a water test weekly and act accordingly, if no issues, dont change it...

good luck

 

[dcarmor927]

Dont change the water weekly! Thats one of the worst things to do.

What? how is this bad?

 

[Ferris]

will be fine, got to remember that cichlids in lake malawi are crammed into small spaces constantly fighting for the rockwork and caves etc.

synos will just stay out ofway so dont worry about them.

have good external filtration and all should be good.

Dont change the water weekly! Thats one of the worst things to do.

Only change the water if there is an issue with its quality. Get a water test weekly and act accordingly, if no issues, dont change it...

good luck

Sorry Aaron89 but i've gotta pick you up on a couple of things here i'm afraid in the interest of anyone reading this thread and looking for advice.

Lake Malawi is huge and indeed one of the deepest lakes in the world - cichlids living there are not crammed into small spaces in any way. Don't confuse the idea of overstocking a man-made environment such as an aquarium with Malawi cichlids natural habitat. Overstocking is good practice in home aquaria to reduce aggression - it has nothing to do with their natural habitat.

The rock-dwelling behaviour also only applies to Mbuna, not all Malawi cichlids. Haps for example are open water predators and make more use of the deeper areas of the lake.

Water changes weekly or fortnightly is IMO quite simply the most important part of fishkeeping. None of the beneficial bacteria etc is actually in the water and the only considerations when changing water are temp and Ph, which are both easy to manage - i'm afraid thats terrible advice.

I always respect peoples opinions on this forum but in this case, the facts need to be clearly stated for anyone interested in keeping Malawi cichlids.