[manhattan63]

I feel terrible, cichlid-forums always seems to pop up when I'm googling names of species so today I thought I'd try and ease a little of that guilt and sign up.

Got a couple of spare 500 litre 'vats' in a warm room that are linked (but can be separated) and was thinking about stocking some wilds. Eventually I want to build a big indoor tropical pond, but the vats will do for now!

Metriaclima sp. Msobo Magunga 3 male / 10 female
Labeotroheus Tewavasae Black Top Higga Reef 3/9
Pseudotropheus Elongatus Mpanga 3/9
Synodontis Multipunctatus 7 ?/?
Cyno sp. Lion’s cove 2/7
I wanted some afra really, but not many about it seems in the UK.

Feel free to pick holes in my choices, I'm happy to pay back some of my googling time by being told I'm an idiot. Ideally they can go together and swim between the two vats, but if have 'issues' I can pull some across to the other vat, and close it off.

 

[JcarrVT]

I think in a 132 Gallon setup you could do a 5th species but what is the "footprint" of your vats?. If they are tall than you might have the floorspace of a 75g, which would make your stocking list about perfect, otherwise I'm sure you have room to expand.

 

[manhattan63]

I normally have about 50cm water depth. If you think that's suitable for a 5th species, any suggestions?

Cheers

 

[ridley25]

I think if I were stocking WC cichlids I would go for big groups of fewer species to maximize my chances at nice, non-hybrid fry.

Otherwise, your proposed stock list and ratios look good.

kevin

 

[spotmonster]

Can you post us some pics of the vats? They sound kind if interesting.

 

[manhattan63]

I'm not near them to take a pic at the moment, but they're called dolavs (1st result if you google it), I'll post a pic later. Temporarily in an insulated poly tunnel while I get organised and build something a little more permanent.

 

[JcarrVT]

Oh wow I read right over the "WC" def get big groups of the species you listed. You could make some bank on F1 fry with the numbers you can stock. Obviously not as much if you were doing a whole breeder setup but that's worlds more involved.

Also really interested in seeing your vats, sounds like a unique setup.

 

[dielikemoviestars]

Yeah, I'd just do big (15-18) colonies, 2 per vat, of WC adults. Maybe 3 colonies of 12 each. Then find a way to make shipping to the US dirt cheap and send me some fry!

 

[JcarrVT]

Then find a way to make shipping to the US dirt cheap and send me some fry!

Exactly! You can't be selfish here gotta think of the group!

 

[manhattan63]

Hehe, I thought I'd use the vats rather than a tank/rack system so that breeding would/could just be a bi-product of the set-up and not sitting there staring in to tanks with my fingers crossed.

There are 2 vats, so I could split species between the two (500 litres each side/shared filter), but the cost of stocking larger numbers is a pain in the backside. I think the vats are actually 600 litres but I don't like water/fish too near the top.

Feel free to pull around my numbers, ratios and choice of species and let me know what you'd stock in something similar. Eventually everything will need to co-exist happily in a 3000 litre indoor pond (although knowing me, it might take a while).