Question about the amount of Africans to keep

[RedStarFishy]

I read somewhere that Africans are best kept kinda crowded. it stops them from defending one terrority and the biggest one or two becoming dominant and bullying everybody. now i know this would vary greatly depending on the African species at hand, but i was wondering in general what everybody thought about this? i have the web page somewhere, so i could copy and paste either the link or the exact words. thanks! Jess

 

[sylvia]

First off, I have absolutely no experience with african cichlids so don't take my word for it .

It's true that over-stocking a cichlid tank helps disperse aggression as it devides unwanted attention between several fish, thus reducing it considerably on each individual. Obviously, however, this means you need a lot more filtration and it is often simpler to under-stock and provide lots of territories in the form of elaborate and careful rockwork than to over-stock with the result being bad water quality. If you can afford the extra filtration, however, I suppose over-stocking wouldn't hurt.

 

[Sorrell]

Overfilter and overstock for sure

 

[cichlidmommy]

I have been told the same thing about overstocking them. I have never done it, so I am bot sure if it does work. Mine is understocked, and they are not overly aggressive. I am sure there are some experts who come in here who can tell us if the is fact or fiction.

 

[yhbae]

This depends on the species. If you are talking about mbuna, that is true, but lake Tang species shouldn't be overstocked.

 

[freddyk]

It really depends on the species, but for the most part the overstocking suggestion is meant for aggressive harem breeders like mbuna and tropheus.

 

[G_Sharky]

I think it's true more mbuna, in my own experience, my cichlids haven't killed or did some serious damage on my other fish... The only real agression I get is when I first introduce a fish in the tank, they'll nip on him for a couple of days and after that they just ignore it....that goes for all my bottom feeders when i first introduce them, but I don't have an extra filtration, just an AC 300, but i do about 30 % WC every week...so i guess if your going to overstock then you should do more maintenance.....