Which are your fav Mbuna species?

TTboy79

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Hi Guy,

Feeling a little nostalgic about my years keeping and breeding mbunas (then I moved to another country and Iā€™m not setting up big tanks).
I was thinking that among my favorite of all time are:

Melanochromis auratus: itā€™s a super classic, and people look down at them because of the high level of aggressiveness. Let me tell you one thing, when theyā€™re babies are absolutely adorable and as soon as they get out of mumā€™s mouth super colorful, little stripy microfish. And parental care of the mum is just amazing.
And when the male mature itā€™s so fascinating, he gets dark in all senses. Not just aggressive, a killer. At least of the other weaker males in the tank. Iā€™ve seen an auratus male keeping the biggest cave of a 100gallons tank fighting against cichlids TWICE his size!
And the female and youngs color are nice yellow black and white striped.

The other favorite is Labeotropheus spp., affectionately called ā€œbig noseā€ for his unique shape. And beautiful blue body colour too.

Color wise, of course there are loads brighter and bluer, but as uniqueness and personality wise those ones are the best fish Iā€™ve kept in 20 years in the hobby.
 
While I've never kept a Mbuna tank, I have always enjoyed Yellow Labs. Great parents and gorgeous colors. I suspect a lot of people are going to respond with "OB Peacocks".
 
I have kept mbunas for a while. What a beautiful species they are. There are no fish that matches when it comes to feeding.

My favourite once that i keep currently are:

Pseudotropheus acei: love the blue with the yellow tail. They are mellow as mbunas get.

Cobalt zebra: current tank boss and i love him.

Pseudotropheus johannii : love the shape and can be a little smaller when it comes to other specias of mbunas but for sure can hold their own.

Williamsi mbuna: love the yellow and the purple lips. Very good looking fish.

There are many more i like. But these come to my mind when thinking of my favourites.
 
My two favourites are milder ones, character-wise - yellow labs and rustys (Iodotropheus). Nothing exotic, nothing psychotic...
 

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