Refusal Of The Overstocking Rule.

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I have a 75g tank (which will prolly be closer to 65 after rocks)
Dimensions, remember that dimensions are more important than volume as they tell us more about the available territory :good: Personally, I would be expecting to have only about 40-45 gallons after the rockwork.

Someone else can advise you better on the stocking, but remember to be careful when mixing species of the same colour.

Malawi MaD, I consider labs to be peaceful because one can keep them in small groups, with only a few females per male and rarely do as much as acknowledge the existence of other species (in my experience of keeping only one male per tank for anything under a few 100 gallons), compared to many other species. I'm not saying that they're not capable of fighting if they take it to their heads that they really want to, but I have never seen one of mine or one I was looking after do so when males are not mixed.

I know kitty i wasn't really targeting/aiming that at you :D(Sorry Should of worded what i said earlier a little better) because you are right in what your saying as a lot of the time labs are less aggressive. Its just i wouldn't class them as peaceful as i've had males in my tanks before that have had 2 to 3 wild males and 20+ females and they have been just as aggressive as any melanochromis species (which is saying something) then ive had labs that have been quiet as anything, breeding regular with his females and not even acknowledging the other species (like yours did). I think it Just depend's on the fish really some can be worse than others. :good:

Thing is with malawi's especially, people always say overstock the tank, do this, do that but its not necessarily going to work for everyone just because it worked for you. Yes overstocking can help a lot but it can cause more problems to, its not just about overstocking the tank if you choose wrong species and mix the wrong ones together its going to go wrong no matter how much you 'overstock' your tank. The labidochromis caeruleus is always classed as a more peacefull fish to and i dont really understand why, as these can be just as aggressive as any other mbuna. It all depends on what the fish is like, ive had L caeruleus in the past and many of the males seem to be less aggressive ( still the odd chasing about) but had just as many males with the temperament of a bull and will chase/attack anything in his part of the tank. Di your stock list is fine for a 75G you could add another species and add to the groups you have, but you could add the ones listed above monitor them for a while then if you decide to add more you can. Just remeber to add a good amount of fish at once because if you had 1 or 2 by themselves i guarantee you will loose them to aggression.
:)
Speaking of other species, my husband loved the fish on the list you gave me. We may end up changing our plan altogether based on that list lol.

lol There is many more to name but i think the list would never be decided if i kept throwing different species at you :p. It's to hard to decide as there is a lot of nice fish to choose from :D. What other's did you husband take a liking to?
I cannot remember the scientific names, but pretty much all the blue ones on that list lol. My husband had a thing for blue lol

lol quite a lot of mbuna are blue or have blue in the colouration, soo you could be having a lot of blue in your tank if he chooses them all :p.
Oh yes, it will be a very blue tank lol. Here in about an hour when the man gets home, I have a tank to finish cleaning and ALOT of sand to clean, as well as the rock. I am going to try and get the tank filled either today or tomorrow lol.

And you are right that in a lot of cases it depends on the individual fish. I found this out with bettas. I have 2 that are doing great in community tanks. I have 2 others that will NOT get along with other fish. Weird.
 
I consider labs to be peaceful because one can keep them in small groups, with only a few females per male and rarely do as much as acknowledge the existence of other species (in my experience of keeping only one male per tank for anything under a few 100 gallons), compared to many other species. I'm not saying that they're not capable of fighting if they take it to their heads that they really want to, but I have never seen one of mine or one I was looking after do so when males are not mixed.
I know kitty i wasn't really targeting/aiming that at you :D(Sorry Should of worded what i said earlier a little better) because you are right in what your saying as a lot of the time labs are less aggressive. Its just i wouldn't class them as peaceful as i've had males in my tanks before that have had 2 to 3 wild males and 20+ females and they have been just as aggressive as any melanochromis species (which is saying something) then ive had labs that have been quiet as anything, breeding regular with his females and not even acknowledging the other species (like yours did). I think it Just depend's on the fish really some can be worse than others. :good:
I didn't read it as you were, was just explaining myself ;) Yes, that is saying quite a lot about the labs… do you think it was because the fish were wild caught so may have spent their lives in a more aggressive environment than we usually put them into? What size tank did you have them in?
 
Seriously guys? Hijacking the thread? - ps do you have to ''quote'' everything.
I dont mind you hijacking it but please just stop quoting so much
 
Seriously guys? Hijacking the thread? - ps do you have to ''quote'' everything.
I dont mind you hijacking it but please just stop quoting so much

The thread just got interesting in my eyes, hardly been hi-jacked, its all useful info.
 
I will stop the quotes, But i thought my question pertained quite well to the general ideas and rules of "Overstocking"
 
i had a 2 foot community tank las year with 8 neons, 1 plec, 2 dwarf goramis and p@h refused to sell me any more fish as i was overstocked.
my plec got too big so i let my friend take him and both goramis died so i went to p@h and spent £40 on guppies, panda fish and balloon fish and lost them all in a week.
tests showed my water was in good condition, (been set up 9 years then) but p@h refused to do anything.

my daughter set her tank up 3 weeks ago and last week bought fish from p@h and lost them all in 2 days.
needless to say p@h are now avoided
 
Did she do a fishless cycle? How many of these fish did you buy?

Please edit your post regarding a certain pet shop as this thread has a lot of good information which is beneficial to others, rants about certain pet/fish shops means the thread will be closed.
 
i had a 2 foot community tank las year with 8 neons, 1 plec, 2 dwarf goramis and p@h refused to sell me any more fish as i was overstocked.
my plec got too big so i let my friend take him and both goramis died so i went to p@h and spent £40 on guppies, panda fish and balloon fish and lost them all in a week.
tests showed my water was in good condition, (been set up 9 years then) but p@h refused to do anything.

my daughter set her tank up 3 weeks ago and last week bought fish from p@h and lost them all in 2 days.
needless to say p@h are now avoided

It would be interesting to know your readings of "good condition", im not picking holes, but some people say their water is in good condition and dont even own a test kit, or they believe low ammounts of ammonia are fine.

Mind you, that said, this line of conversation is really taking the thread off its rails and is perhaps suited to one of its own, we dont want little old snake complaining again do we.
 
Mind you, that said, this line of conversation is really taking the thread off its rails and is perhaps suited to one of its own, we dont want little old snake complaining again do we.
[/quote]
She did mention the LFS said her tank was overstocked :p
 
You can carry on - Ive just read through all the posts and I understand your point and how this is relevant to the post.
Please continue.
 
I dont mind you hijacking it but please just stop quoting so much
It's more obvious what one replies to, if one quotes ;) but maybe not quoting irrelevant parts would help :rolleyes:

needless to say p@h are now avoided
Please do answer Tizer's questions, it would be interesting to see if the above statement is misplaced, especially as the LFS in question warned in advance about your predicament.
 
cant remember the exact readings of tank as ive replaced the test kit (ran out of most liquids) but the only problem i rem,eber having was amonia was high so used ammo lock a week or so before new fish introduced
 
cant remember the exact readings of tank as ive replaced the test kit (ran out of most liquids) but the only problem i rem,eber having was amonia was high so used ammo lock a week or so before new fish introduced


There's your problem then.
 
cant remember the exact readings of tank as ive replaced the test kit (ran out of most liquids) but the only problem i rem,eber having was amonia was high so used ammo lock a week or so before new fish introduced

So basically, the reason for your fish dying is because you havnt cycled the filter and P@H are not in the slightest bit to blame for your troubles...Perhaps its time to do some reading before you get more fishies. Gluck!
 
@kittykat

Finally got my new tank! Its not a 6ft, as only a 5ft would fit in the gap we had, but its a far better next home for my pictus than what they have currently.. thanks for your advice :)
 

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