Lake Malawi Species • Planning a 125G 6feet for mbunas

[DJRansome]

I'd try to find out because again, demasoni have similar issues.

[Zythum]

Maybe ill have to resign and use a UV to kill parasite/bacteria in the water.

[DJRansome]

You treated them with Metronidazole?

[Zythum]

I treated with clout, I just treated again a few minutes ago. I lost 2 again this week-end, I was gone for 2 days. Now I have 16 left.

[Eric_S]

Hi,

I currently have tropheus Duboisi maswa but its not going as planned. I lost 10 out of my 28 that I started with, If I lose 6 more I will stick to my original plan.

Mbuna stocklist for my 125G:
6x Synodontis multipunctatus
1m/6f Labidochromis caeruleus (Lions cove)
1m/6f Pseudotropheus sp. "acei" (Msuli)
1m/6f Iodotropheus sprengeraes (Makokola Reef) Rusty cichlid
15 Pseudotropheus demasoni

What do you think of that mix?

I have a very similar mix in my tank except instead of rusties I have pseudotropheus cyaneorhabdos. My male female ratios are all over the place and with my rock work lots of fry keep surviving so it would be futile to try and maintain a certain ratio. I strongly considered rusties as my last addition, but my wife wanted the cyaneorhabdos so I conceded. I agree with DJ to up the # of demasoni. I think overall that's a great mix that you'll really enjoy.

[Zythum]

Hi,

I am selling my tropheus. I want big lights and more rocks, better suited for mbunas. I've checked the inventory at my local store, this is what I was thinking of putting up. I wont put catfish, so fry should survive, I wanna reduce chance of hybrid.

Its for a 125G, with 20G of water in the sump and a 10G wetdry with 1300GPh flow.
I do a 30% water change a week.

- 6x Labidochromis caeruleus (1m/5f)
- 7x Melanochromis cyaneorhabdos (1m/6f)
- 8x Metriaclima callainos (1m/7f)
- 20x Pseudotropheus demasoni (some males, rest females)
- 6x Pseudotropheus sp. acei Itungi (1m/5f)

What do you think?

[DJRansome]

Looks good. I'd go one more female on the maingano. Fry will not survive (except for the occasional one here and there) because the adults will eat them.

[Zythum]

Finally I went:

- 12x Labidochromis caeruleus
- 8x Metriaclima callainos
- 20x Pseudotropheus demasoni
- 6x Pseudotropheus sp. acei Itungi

I just built my wall of rock, currently putting the fishes in.

Pictures to come.

[Zythum]

Everything is fin, no losses and all fishes are swimming. One of my demasoni went in my corner flo. I cant get my hand in there and the fish didnt go near the net even with a flake in it. I hope he goes in the pipe to the pre-filter on my wet-dry, so I can put him back in the tank. Do you have any tricks to get him out of there? I will put gutter plastic to prevent any other fish from going in there.

[DJRansome]

Small net? Mine jump over the background when I fill the tank too full every time...the pleco too. Then I have to net them out of a 1" space.

Or as fry they swim through the grate and grow up (a little) back there.

[Zythum]

I made a video of my tank

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmVqz6Ns3cA

[ridley25]

Hi,

The stock list you finally settled on seems like a winner and the tank looks great.

Some aquascaping suggestions you can take or leave:
>Your rock wall looks a little too uniform. Try taking a few of the top rocks down and putting them half-buried in the substrate up front. That way you will get more of a natural 'tumbling' look.
>I think you've gone overboard on your substrate. You only need an inch on the bottom. Try scooping some out over the next few water changes and see what you think.

Once again, great tank!

Kevin

[Zythum]

The rock wall will be modified each time I get too much fry in the tank. I will then empty the tank of all fish and rock, water change and cleaning of sand, build a new rock wall and put back fish. The fry will then be sold. I want bigger rocks for the base and build from there on next shot. Didnt have time now, I even had to salvage some of the pink rocks that I wanted to replace with grey or black rocks. The background will be painted too if I have time.

For the sand, it was setup for tropheus with a pile of rock at each end. I didnt put enough behind the rocks, I will move more back when I rebuild the wall. I had 1 inch thick before with the tropheus, maybe a bit more now with the rock wall.

My day looked like this last sunday:
- I fish my tropheus at 11:00
- Sell them to someone at 13:00
- Get 46 mbunas at 15:00
- Move sand, build wall of rock at 17:00
- Water change at 17:30
- Start acclimating at 18:00
- Done putting 5 bags in at 19:00

I put all fish in one shot because my tank was already cycled. I didnt go crazy on planning the aquascape, didnt have time to get my bigger rocks either. This is my favorite tank so far, I just hope the demasoni dont go crazy when they get bigger, even if they are the smallest fish in the tank.