Roma 125L, 33 Us Gallon Mbuna Stocking....?

[jonnyuk]

do a search on lake Tanganyikan fish. there are also lots of threads on the subject in this section of the forum.

to give you some idea i have a 2ft tank and keep

1 calvus
2 punks
1 masked juli
6 zebra danios that act as dithers

fluval 105 filter

so far my fish are getting on fine, there is the usual stand off now and again but nothing serious or violent.

in 3ft you could get away with 3-4 cryps. these stay higher in the water column (the others swim in the rocks and lower to the substrate), swim together and have really nice colours.

you could have a really nice tang tank.

 

[Tizer]

A 125 Litre tank is too small for a Tanganyika tank. Most of the Tanganyika fish prefer next to no flow of water and a very rocky setup. Your not going to be able to make many hidey holes in a 125l tank for one thing and if your fish want to breed, thats going to cause a lot of upset. There is just no space to setup territories. All of the Tanganyika catfish, like the syno's already mentioned, grow very large and really like to swim a lot. Its like one of us jumping into the hot tub and doing a lengh of it or two....you cant really, you can just about turn around Also i should mention the bigger the filter the more powerful flow it will produce, without looking this filter up i dont know if there is a variable output. if not you would need a spray bar at least to reduce the flow. keep that in mind.

Now, with that said and done, i refer back to your origional post regarding Kribs*. A pair of Kribs in a 125L tank would be very entertaining, especially if you get a breeding pair. Facinating to watch and plenty of choices for dither fish to go with them. Thats the route i would be going down and if i were in your shoes.

Tang tanks, you really do have to think biiiiiig.


best of luck


PS i have a 240l 4 foot tank which i got about 4 months ago, it came with a young cuckoo catfish which looked fantasic in there, very very busy day and night, i really didnt want to get rid, but after seeing one measuring 7/8 inches in the lfs i realised it wasnt going to suit my tank, so i got rid. They dont just grow long, they grow wide! and he would have soon been picking off my neons in the middle of the night. They dont generally set out to attack and kill small fish, but if their bristles find something (they are pretty blind) they would generally just eat it and question what it ate later

 

[kiriyama]

If the tank is 3' the Paracyprichromis nigripinnis are a good option, rocks stacked steeply up on side of the tank with a couple of bits of slate for overhanges would keep them happy, a group of 6+,(tank 100cm/150ltr , shells at the other end for Multifasciatus OR Kungweensis OR Ocellatus etc, OR failing the shell dwellers there are quite a few of the smaller sand sifters will be quite happy in tanks as small as 80cm/100cm...
I think with this tank a small species tank of Neolamprologus brichardi would be nice, watching the generations of fry raise the younger generations,
caudopunctatus and gold or pearl ocellatus
Failing that , if you can source them a small group of Microdontochromis rotuniventralis would make a very nice display
As a sidenote, some of the smaller Julidochromis can be kept in a tank as small as 60cm/60ltr so your tank is more than adequate for a pair of Julidochromis dickfeldi
Google be thy friend

 

[jonnyuk]

A 125 Litre tank is too small for a Tanganyika tank

disagree with this completely. there are lots of small tangs

i do however agree regarding the catfish...the op could always buy the fish young, watch them grow and move them on.

lots of options in a 3ft tang tank.