What Africans Can I Stock My 65g Tank With?

[ammoniator]

Hi All,

I'm learning the hard way currently- for those who are interested see this thread

basically i wanted oscars and some other fish but the oscars are so dirty, and the other fish mean i am changing water every day/other day and additionally i can only have 1 oscar in a tank the size i have....

so, since i wanted to keep a number of fish, i have been referred to this forum section.

ive had a look at the africans and "dig"

Asatalapia Burtoni
Gold Head Muzi (i really like this one but it seems they are only small critters) (?)
nimbochromis venestus
marbled peacock
Xystichromis Phytophagus
Rusty cichlid
sulphur crest...

you get the idea hopefully...
(i couldnt find the colloquial names for all of them)

I came across another site that had a bunch of tank setups..here (55g tank shown- i figure mine will be between the 55g and 75 setup)

but i'd like to get some advice from here if i may.

The members here have been great.

Looking forward to some collective wisdom.

Cheers,
Tim

 

[fishlover500]

There is an aquarium calculator on this website to tell you how big ur tank is. Just measure your tank. The link is in the top rightish of every page in this forum.

 

[dthoffsett]

I'm going to guess your 65gal is a four foot, if so it'll work great with Malawi cichlids.

Of the species you are interested in, you've got a mix of Lake Tanganikya species, along with Lake Malawi hap/peacocks, one mbuna, and a Lake Victoria species. It's generally not recommend to mix species from the different lakes, or haps/peacocks with mbuna due to differing dietary needs and temperments, so I'd suggest deciding which lake you want to focus on. And, if you go with Malawi, you'll need to decide if you want to go with haps/peacocks (open water predators) and mbuna (rock-dwelling herbivores).

Astatolapia Burtoni - Lake Tanganikya species, 5 inches, aggressive, omnivore

Gold Head Muzi (Altolamprologus compressiceps Gold Head) - Lake Tanganikya, 6 inches, mildly aggressive, carnivore

nimbochromis venestus - Lake Malawi hap, 10.5 inches, aggressive, carnivore, too large for you tank

marbled peacock, aka OB peacock - Lake Malawi peacock, 5-6 inches, temperment depends on parents, carnivore, generally considered undesirable by cichlid purists as they are a man made species (hybrids).

Xystichromis Phytophagus - Lake Victoria, 4.5 inches, aggressive, herbivore

Rusty cichlid (Iodotropheus Sprengerae) - Lake Malawi mbuna, 5 inches, mildly aggressive, herbivore

sulphur crest I'm guessing Aulonocara maylandi - Lake Malawi peacock, 4.5 inches, mildly aggressive, carnivore

I'd suggest reading the following articles to help you decide what Lake you'd like to focus on, once you decide, we can give you an idea of how many to stock.

Setting up a Lake Malawi Tank
Tankanikyan community part 1
The Mbuna Aquarium
The Lakes of East Africa
Haps vs Mbuna
Peacocks