Two Questions, Please Help

[ANIM4L]

Ok, I have a 60 gallon tank, the filters i have are an XP3 and XP2 Rena cannisters, and a Marineland Emporer 400 BioWheel, coming out to about 330gallons of filtering, so i got the filtering down, I have a million caves in my tank for them, i used lace rock, so that was easy, and I was wondering two things...

how many african mbuna cichlkids could i get into my tank, if i did the safe 1 male for each species? like socolofis, johanni, kenyis, zebras, and labs? i know that is kinda hard for you to answer, but right now i have:

3 snow white socolofis
3 socolofis
5 zebras
6 labs
3 kenyis
3 johanni

is that too much? or do i actually have room for more? The only things i would ever add or more of the species, not new species, i was wondering if this was too much or if it was ok?

ok and my other question is, i feed them lots of different foods, very large variety. these are the food i have for them:

HBH SuperSoft Pellets w/ Krill
HBH SuperSoft Pellets w/ Spirulina
Wardley Cichlid Crumbles
Omega One Cichlid Crumbles
HBH African Attack! Pellets
Omega One Vegtable Pellets
Fresh Zuccini
Frozen Brine Shrimp
Frozen Plankton
Omega One Shrimp Pellets
Wardley Shrimp Pellets

So as you can see, my fish are spoiled (I do that with all my animals ) but how often do i feed them? I tend to do 1-2 times of crumbles or pellets, and then one time of frozen, but i wanna cuz down on feeding so i have less waste and ya, but i dont want them to resort to attacking eachtoher, would this be a problem if i feed them once a day? I have a good amount of algea growing on my rocks (i stuck them in water an dput them bya window) so they have algea they can eat all they want. what do you think? Thanks for your help everyone!

 

[BabySealClubber]

Animal, your stocking level is fine so long as you do regular partial water changes and filter maintenance. I wouldn't add more fish, though.

I feed to my rift lake cichlids NLS Cichlid Formula as a staple, supplemented occasionally by dried seaweed, fresh veggies and frozen mysis. But your foods and feeding regimen are fine. I would go light on foods with high fat and protein.

 

[Fish_Mike]

Are all of your Mbuna juvies?

The all-male tank is only for peacocks as with Mbuna they will rip each other to shreds (from what I've gathered). For a smart, successful set-up, you need to have about one male to every three females.

 

[ANIM4L]

yes i have been doing the 1m 3 females set up as best as i can, some of my fish are too young to tell yet (kenyis, and a couple socolofis, and a couple zebras) but if i get too many males, i will take them out of the tank, before they kill eachother. and yes my fish are all between an inch to 2.5 inches max. thanks for the help, i will check my food containers for the protein and fat, what should i go to as max for fat and protein?

 

[ANIM4L]

also though, how much should i feed them, once a day with pellets once a day with frozen, only once a day (switch between), more than that? i want them to be fed and ok, but not fed so much i have to deal with more messes and waste, and i dont want them to resort to killing eachother! when they get bigger i know they will nip more at the algea, they nip at it rarely, but dont dent it, so i am guessing when they are older they will show more activity with the algea (i knwo they wont kill it all)

 

[Fish_Mike]

Twice a day is good. Subsitute frozen foods into their diet only once or twice a week.

What is your temperature at?

Depending on what it is, you may be able to lower it. A cooler temperature (within means) would slow down the metabolsim and would cause less waste.

 

[G_Sharky]

you definitely have some good filtration going there..as long as you do a 25% water change once a week then your in good shape...I think you could get away with adding a few more as it would actually help on the agression and lessens the chance of one of your fish being killed....Do 1m/4 females per species and you'll be fine

 

[ANIM4L]

Yes i have been doing 25% water changes weekly. today i did about a twenty, while changing the filter stuff out, since i just now set up the emporer, i decided to clean out the filters, and with all the fod i had been doing, plus th frozens every day, plus the use of seachem clarity, my prefilters were pretty bad. but i cleaned them up, and i did everything i could. is it ok if i dont get the gravel vac into the places with caves, i know that the crushed coral hoses bacteria, would that destroy the bad stuff in any waste in there if i got ever inch i possibley could with the gravel vac?

also, how would a bicher or a striped peacock eel fare in this tank? would they be ok? i knwo they would eat babies, and that is ok with me, i just have one of each in a tank now i am breaking down to sell to someone, and they were in there with fish they could eat, and never once attacked a fish, i think i feed them well with frozen and never have introduced live to them before. how would they do?? thanks for all the help everyone! i may be getting mroe caves too, and a couple plants....