Yellow Labs....my First African Set-up...questions

[Faythee]

I have a 56 gallon tank. It is more of a cube shape, deeper and taller than the standard. Due to this I went with the lesser aggressive smaller Cichlids. I currently have 3 Yellow Labs and 1 Black Calvus. They are all small, approx. 2.5" each.

First question...... How big do the Labs get ? I see some sites saying 4" and others 6" ?

The Calvus is fine, but I'm not sure on the Labs. One is obviously the dominant in the tank. He has alot of distinct black on him while the other two only have faint black lines. The dominant one chases the other 2 often. One of them seems okay, but the other is often hiding behind the filter uptake. The poor fishy can't be happy. I am not sure what to do. Add more fish ? Remove the dominant one ? Re-arrange the tank ? I have plenty of hiding spots in there.

I could just remove the unhappy one.....but since the two look exactly alike I will not know which one it is !

I'll get a pic of the tank once it gets a bit darker here...............

 

[kribensis12]

They get about 5-6 inches. Even bigger if allowed( I've seen some monsters ). THe hiding behind the uptake is probably a male. mI would purchase another 2 or three female labs, and re-arrange the tank , then add them. Because two females and a male is a bad idea. If one is breeding, the other one will be extremely stressed out.

 

[Faythee]

Thank you !

Okay....I am imagining them to get the size of my large Opaline Gourami. This tank isn't big enough for several of those. I am upgrading my 75 gal. and could move them there, but not sure how long it will be. Been searching for a 150+ tank for quite some time now to move my Severum, Sailfin and Tinfoils to.

I went to the store yesterday and the only Labs they had were quite a bit bigger. Can I mix the sizes ? Sounds scary..........

 

[kribensis12]

You can mix sizes as long as it isn't a huge difference.

 

[stryper]

Hi there. A tank for Malawis has to be long more than deep. The depth ain't that important and nice if you can get a bit of width. Malawis need crowding to stop the aggresion as much as pos' but i'd go for no smaller than a four ft tank. And i really wouldn't put non Mbuna in with them this always ends up in trouble lol.