Lake Malawi Species • 125 Mbuna Stocking

[Boot]

Purchased a new 125 6 foot tank and am going to stock it with mbuna's.

My stocking plan is to add 6-8 juveniles of the following - I'll pull the extra males out as they mature

Petrotilapia sp. chitumba
Metriaclima sp. msobo deep
Labidochromis caerleus
Pseudotropheus socolofi
Pseudotropheus williamsi north
Pseudotropheus acei
and
Synodontis lucipinnis

All of these fish are available for me in the Minneapolis area.

Will it work without hybridization? Many Pseudotropheus, I know.

I have seeded filters will add when I add the Fish

Attached is a picture of the setup - 125 on top and 2 40 breeders on the bottom. I'm breeding Victorians in the 40's and have Synodontis multipunctatus in one of them hoping to breed those too. Will be adding much more rock to the 125 prior to the Fish.

[DJRansome]

I would choose between acei and Petrotilapia Chitumba and socolofi.

I have kept the acei and socolofi together and ended up swapping out the socolofi because the blues are similar. I wanted more contrast.

Looking at pics of dominant male Chitumbas they look very similar to the acei.

[Boot]

Thanks for the reply DJRansome.

I think I'll plan on the chitumba 's as they seem a bit less common. Will look around for other species to fill the tank.

Any recommendations? Hoping for a tank with color and movement and something on the larger rather than smaller size to go with my other planned stocking.

[DJRansome]

Five species with 1m:4f of each is perfect for a 125G IME. What about a Labeotropheus? Go with 1m:7f because they are a little more aggressive than the
others.

Or, nothing can beat the blue of Pseudotropheus cyaneorhabdos Maingano. 1m:7f.

[Boot]

Labeotropheus is definitely an option. I'll see if any are available locally. If not, I'm not against getting them shipped if necessary. Thanks again.

[Boot]

I purchased 5 young Labeotropheus trewavasae 'mpanga red' with an opportunity to add 5-6 more from a local breeder. The parents of these fish are gorgeous and I hope these turn out as nice as the parents.

I think these are going to make a nice addition to the current stock.

[DJRansome]

Well even if you happened to get 1m:4f you still need 3 more females. I would get them now. Your tank was cycled with ammonia, right?

[Boot]

DJRansome - I have a number of tanks set up so I was able to move an Aquaclear 110 and a sponge filter from a established tank that's been filtering a fully stocked tank for many months to the new 125. No worries there.

I moved some fish around and added lace and holey rock to the 125.

Here's a picture of what the tank looks now.