[John253]

Hello all,
First post now been lurking a little while.
Recently decided to make the jump over to Africans from salt and seeking out advice on a species to feature in my 90 gallon.
Looking to focus on one species to get my feet wet and be able to experience they're full behavior including breeding (hopefully) in my setup as well as make feeding easier for a newbie.
Thinking of possibly going with an aulonacara colony or possibly an mbuna that could be kept in a colony type setting. Any advice would be very welcomed as to what would make an interesting and fun to watch species setup.
Also, would like advice on where to purchase said fish if at all possible? If aulunacara would prefer to go with wild caught to know I was starting with a pure strain....

Thanks!

 

[DJRansome]

Mbuna you would get more color since females can be colorful. Yellow labs or acei would be great. Shoot for 20 fish.

I would not buy wild caught. You can be sure of pure fish if you buy from a reputable dealer...which they all claim to be. Check out Retailer Reviews or PM a Member or a Mod for specific recommendations.

Aulonocara females are brown/silver so if you choose a less aggressive species you could do 4m:16f.

Realize you have to remove holding females to raise fry...the adults will eat the fry.

 

[John253]

Thank your for the response. I hadn't really thought that through having to remove fry if kept in a species tank was figuring that a decent amount would make it without being gobbled up. That does change my perspective a bit on going for a species tank.
The yellow tail acei looks to be a very interesting choice I could imagine a tank full of them would look pretty stunning. I'm not to into the yellow labs although beautiful beautiful.
I could see the downfall to a colony of peacocks would be only having 4-5 colorful fish.
Might also give some thought to brichardi after doing some more research they're behavior is appealing although they're color seems to be pretty drab.