Stocking Amount Question

[creg]

i emailed midlands malawis for advice they said..


Most mbuna will live togather,the only problem with them is they can cross breed
therefore i would recomend not keeping fish that look similar. I would also recomend have a even amout of males and females or more females than males as a male heavy tank doesnt tend to work.

i would think your tank can hold 25
fish no prob.

25 sounds about correct I'd say as long as you have plenty of caves and hiding places/places for them to dart around when being chased. I'd try and add as many as you can to start with (taking that everything has been cycled and readings are all ok) so that they all have equal footing in marking their territory. If you get them gradually you may need to alter things in the tank to achieve this and set them all back to square one

Then if u get cats I'd maybe go with 20 cichlids and 5 cats? I think the ratios on the yellow labs and rusty is 4 females to one male

i have mature filter media i can use but not sure that will allow me to fully stock straight away, might go with 9 to start with then 9 more a couple weeks later then 4 catfish. will buy them as juvi`s too.

gonna buy slate from local garden centre and stack it to make loads of holes/caves

Are you currently doing the fishless cycling using ammonia adding and waiting? What reading of ammonia/nitrite are you getting after the 12/24th hr?

nah not doing it, didnt do it with my first tank either. did the add fish and wait before adding more method and it worked lol.

ive got a test kit so i can keep an eye on the water quality though, pretty sure i`ll be ok with my mature media

Have you added the mature media or is it sitting in a tank with fish in or an ammonia source?

its in my external filter (in use) till my cichlid tank is fully up and running with fish in, i know the bacteria will die without ammonia to feed on

 

[SensesFail]

Just checking

mature media certainly rocks! its a shame it wasnt more available by LFS although i found a really nice LFS after my tank was all cycled and things. When i added my mature media doing the fish less cycling adding the ammonia and waiting it took sometime for the nitrite spike to come and go but the ammonia was good as gold going within the 12hr period. I waited until the nitrite did the same and when i added 19 fish at once i didnt get any ammonia or nitrite when testing twice a day for a week so far so good!

If your only gonna get a few to start with i suspect you will have the same fortune but if you do get ammonia or nitrite you can always grab the bucket and do a water change and so Happy days its brilliant getting fish and going to the LFS i love it! Soon to stop now im getting to max load though! Bad times!