[alexandrend]

Hello guys and girls.
I just mounted my new tank and it is now cycling.
It is a 95 gal (360 litres) tank being 150cm x 40cm x 60cm.
Some pics below:

For now I'm thinking on putting there some mbunas, specifically:
Pseudotropheus crabro: 1 male and 3 or 4 females
Pseudotropheus demasoni: 1 male and 4 or 5 females
Pseudotropheus acei: 5, preferably 1 male and 4 females
Protomelas taeniolatus: 1 male

Before buying the fish I would like to consider also a Hap alternative.
Would it be possible/desirable to house some haps in a tank this size?
What would you suggest? I really like the Venustus and the C. moorii.

Thanks for the help.

 

[Dewdrop]

Sorry I don't know much about the fish you want but gotta say the tank looks super :thumb:

 

[GoofBoy]

Pseudotropheus crabro get pretty big and pretty aggressive - if you are new to africans you may want to go another route.

Pseudotropheus demasoni - you really need a group of at least 12 - more like 15-20 and you would have to add a LOT more rockwork. If you have 5 or 6 you will end up with 1.

Pseudotropheus acei - great choice they swim in the open water a lot and it really doesn't matter that much about M:F ratio.

Venustus may get to big/agggressive.

Some people will say C. moorii needs 6 ft - others say a standard 90 works fine.

I have seen some C. moorii and Yellow Labs tanks that look awesome.

Personally, I think 5 Acei, 5 Yellow Lab and a group 1M:3F C. moorii would look awesome and I think it would work out just fine.

If you check out the Cook cutters you can get some hap ideas - generally think haps under 7in or so.

By the way - Tank looks fantastic.

 

[alexandrend]

Thanks for the comments and for the advice (Goofboy).
Actually I had a previous experience with Malawi Cichlids but I had to move to another country and them shutdown the tank before the fish were adults. I had, among others, one crabro female and 1 pombo male in the tank. The pombo was quite aggressive but the crabro was a pussycat.

I like your idea to mix C. mooriis and lab. Yellow but I think that adding the Aceis would make the tank "too blue".

Maybe 5 Aceis, 5 lab. Yellow and some other species with a different color would do better. Maybe one aulonocara or protomelas? What would you suggest?

 

[alexandrend]

I had a new idea for the faune of my aquarium.
What about the following selection:

Labidochromis caeruleus white: 5 or 6
Pseudotropheus acei: 5 or 6
Pseudotropheus saulosi: 6, preferably 1M / 5F but I doubt I will find it sexed to buy.

Is this a good selection? Would you add anything else? Or remove something?
Thank you.

 

[GoofBoy]

Sounds like a like a good looking tank - you will really like the Acei if you haven't had them before - they readly stay out in the water column and group together quite a bit for mbuna.

Though with 95 gallons you would be able to either up the numbers a little or add one more group of calmer/smaller mbuna and still be fine.

How about 1M:4F Maingano - the Dark Horizontal stripes would really stand out with the 10 or so lighter colored White/Orange Fish?

Good Luck - you will have to post some pictures.

 

[hollyfish2000]

What about a trio of the bigger haps, like the Red Empress (1M-2F?)?

 

[alexandrend]

Good tip hollyfish.

I was thinking about putting a Protomelas taeinolatus male.
My only concern is related to feeding since the Red Empress is omnivore.
I know that the labidochromis and the acei are also omnivore but I guess that the saulosis would not deal well with high proteic food.

Also, the Red Empress females are really ugly when compared to the other fish. Would it be ok to host a single male in the tank?

 

[Gibbs]

The red empress is actually a herbivore and will fit perfectly with the diet of a mbuna.
The only problem i have with them, despite the fact they are very high my list of favorite fish, is the aggression these guys show around breeding time. They can quite often dominate big areas of a tank around this time and fish like Saulosi and Labs can get quite stressed when this occurs.
I would go a lone male if i had to and maybe a lone Venustus male

 

[rsuarez1982]

I'm very happy with my Hap setup; very active and peaceful(check my sig). It's all male, though. I see the direction you are going, but nothing is ever really final in our hobby. Beautiful setup, btw.

 

[Fish_Dude]

If it were me.. I would do:

1 x benga(sunshine) peacock
2 x Ruby Red Peacock
1 x Taiwan Reef (Protomelas Steveni)
1 x S. Frieri "iceburg" (or C. Azureus)
1 x Placidocrhomis Phenochilis
1 x Placidochrmonis Johnstoni "Solo"
1 x lemon Jake peacock
1 x Flavenscent Peacock or Blue Neon peacock
1 x O. Lithobates
1 x Placidcochromis Electra
1 x Red Empress
3x Syndonis Multi's

I think you'll find that this gives you a SUPER color combo.. Put this under an Aquaglo or powerglo light and WOW... Yellows, Orange, reds and blues in various shades! I'd say to throw is something different to throw off the scheme... A venustus would be ideal but they get too big.. just thinking 'spots' and yellow.. maybe you could do a yellow lab.but personally, I wouldn't do Mbuna. Stock your tank with the above and you'll WOW anyone that walks in.

I know people have seen this before, I just want to show examples... but you can see the Phenochilus, Johnstoni, Lemon Jake, Red Empress(only 60% color in this video), and most of the peacocks I listed. I didn't list the larger fish in the tank, and added some smaller fish I think would work really well. I can get you some photos, but I'm telling you, when I walk into that room, it still takes my breath away. I can get you some 'whole tank' photos.

 

[Fish_Dude]

To that list above.. you could also choose from...

Hemitilapia oxyrhynchus

or

T Intermedius.

Both sort of looks similar, personal preference.

 

[Fish_Dude]

One more thing.. Venstus are nice.. and you COULD do one... but they can get nasty at about 5". Blue Dolphins could be one of the meanest fish I've owned, despite what you read. Hobbiest I know all complain about them. In my 125g.. he's not the biggest fish, but the meanest fish are the Dolphin and Venustus.. they also both get 8-10" eventually.

Maybe you haven't seen what else is available though, those two are one of the few Malawi fish that you actually see in local fish stores. I've seen Venustus in wal mart.

But you know what? I see that your tank is 5'. I think you could do both fish with that stock list I gave earlier and you would be fine!

 

[hollyfish2000]

The list above is good, but don't get the 2 ruby reds. If this is an all male tank, you shouldn't have two that look alike. That's asking for trouble. So just one. Other suggestions:

Ngara flametail
Copadichromis mloto ivory head
Red shoulder

Also, something albino, as it won't look like anything else.

 

[alexandrend]

If it were me.. I would do:

1 x benga(sunshine) peacock
2 x Ruby Red Peacock
1 x Taiwan Reef (Protomelas Steveni)
1 x S. Frieri "iceburg" (or C. Azureus)
1 x Placidocrhomis Phenochilis
1 x Placidochrmonis Johnstoni "Solo"
1 x lemon Jake peacock
1 x Flavenscent Peacock or Blue Neon peacock
1 x O. Lithobates
1 x Placidcochromis Electra
1 x Red Empress
3x Syndonis Multi's

I wonder how beautiful a tank with all these fish must be but unfortunately here in Brazil we have very restrictive laws regarding importation of exotic animals. I believe that this is to avoid "infesting" our rivers an lakes with exotic fishes, what could be a very serious problems.

For instance, where I live I have access to a very small number of african cichlids. Regarding haps, the only ones I can find without having to order fishes from 3000 kilometers away are:

Copadichromis borleyi Kandango
Dimidiochromis compressiceps
Nimbochromis venustus
Nimbochromis livingstonii
Cyrtocara moorii
:x

I don't like to overstock my tanks and I prefer to have a good number of small fishes to have a small number of large fishes. That is why I'm tending to go the mbunas way.

I just saw today a lovely pack of Labidochromis white with 2 to 3cms for under 2 euros each in my LFS. I believe that they are going to find a new home very soon.

I'm checking ammonia and nitrite levels everyday and the ammonia just dropped from 0.50ppm to 0.25ppm and nitrites raised to 0.50ppm. So, I guess it is almost ready to get the first inhabitants.

 

[Fish_Dude]

Ahh.. but Overstocking is a MUST with mbuna! Africans are quite different than New World cichlids, the more you stock, the more you keep the agression problems down. With a South American tank, it would be a bloodback, but you WANT this, especially with mbuna.
if you are going to keep a lot of Mbuna, you're not going to want to keep a few haps. Haps don't do well with a lot of mbuna and visa versa. There really isn't a good balance. I wish I had better news for you. I've found that something like a Lab or Demasoni can work in a hap tank if they have a place to hide, but most Mbuna will fade out in a tank of Haps... as haps will in a tank of mbuna. If you WERE to try it, I would recommend a fish like a Red Empress, that can get quite mean, or a Jacobfeiberfi peacock. A venustus should do OK, but eventually would get big.

However, laws are another thing. I can understand the laws, but these fish would not survive well in brazil. They like hard water with a high PH. They certainly wouldn't take over like the South and central american varieties. It does stink that you can't get them... but you can get them.

As for why two Ruby reds? It's hard to explain, I would have thought the same thing until I tried it. Most fish in Malawi are Yellow or Blue. Red and orange is hard to come by, you get it from Red Empress and Ruby Reds.... So you've got three Red/Orange fish, about 3 yellow fish, and lots of blue. I've actually got three Ruby Reds, but they're RED, Red Orange, and Orange, so they're not all identical.