really boring question am afraid

[divertingmiranda]

hiya
I got a 240L long tank coming next week (about 39 imperial gallons i think)
I'd like to stock it with mbuna which I have kept before (but this time i intend to take my time more deciding as some of mine didnt get on as they matured before).

I'd like to have some Yellow Caruleous and Psuedotropheous Elongatus but would like opinions on this as well as what I should put with them.
I just followed my dealers advice last time and things were great for a few month until they matured then some of them got a bit too aggressive - I ended up with 3 male melanchromis auratus which wasnt good

 

[Ferris]

Something i've found works well is to keep only 1 of various species (see sig). I have a mixture of agressive fish that get on fine, sure there is the occasional territory dispute but nothing major. I have avoided male/female combinations that are similar in appearance though to avoid cross breeding.

I've had this tank running for a couple of years now and have had no real issues. When i introduce any new fish, i just make sure they are juveniles and are therefore not perceived as a threat. I also never introduce new fish singularly, always in small groups to spread the agression around.

 

[freddyk]

I don't want to confuse things, but I wouldn't keep them as single species - not because there is anything wrong with it (it's a great way to achieve a very colorful show tank) but because the breeding behavior can be very interesting to watch and females bring out the best in all of them - I don't even care of they breed, its just about the behavior for me.

With most species I go with one male in the tank with a number of females. How many is up to your own tastes, but 3 females or more is best. Some milder species like Yellow Labs will do fine with multiple males. Grown up together these guys will often do fine at 1m to 1f ratios.

One of the tricks to minimizing aggression, yet still keep breeding groups, is to aim for as different colored species as possible. For example, getting Pseudotropheus Saulosi would be a bad idea because the male is colored like Elongatus, and would get harassed and probably ripped up by it.

I'd do something along the lines of 6-8 yellow labs, 4 elongatus , 4 Socolofi and 4 Estherae. I'd by 6 juveniles each of the latter three species, hoping for more females and with the intent of removing extra males as they're discovered.
With these 4 species you have 4 very different colored fish, compatible aggression, and high chances of success. As the least aggressive and most sociable fish in the tank I chose to add more labs then anything else. The tank will be nicely stocked without going overboard. Dimensions of the tank are more important then volume in terms of determining stocking levels - these numbers are all rough of course.

If you choose the single male style aquarium I'd really recommend going with a group of yellow labs or none at all, for the reasons I mentioned above.

 

[vantgE]

Freddyk, what about a mix? like a breeding group of one species and then several single males of other species

 

[freddyk]

As long as the breeding group is one of the less aggressive species in the tank and the single males don't look like the breeding fish, I don't see a problem in trying this.