[punman]

13 Pseudotropheus demasoni in a 4 foot, 45 gallon tank with lots of rock. These fish were raised from fry ant put in this tank at one inch in size. They are now four months old and 1.5 to 2 inches long.
There is a little chasing but no deaths and no beat up fish.
I have a second batch of fry one inch long in a grow-out tank and wonder if I should add five or ten more to the 13 - either now, or in a month when the fry are bigger, or not at all.
I have 13 x /h water filtering and frequent water changes so the tank could handle it - just wondering if more numbers is better or worse for the fish.

Pros and cons to this idea?

 

[rED O]

the thing about mbunas is if you have them in larger groups the agrestion goes down, it should be fine but for a 45 gallon tank your pushing it for space. i would try and go for it also Pseudotropheus demasoni are mean fellas so its hit and miss what might work i would just try it out and see how it goes.

hi punman i knew i regonised the name your also on aa right?

 

[punman]

the thing about mbunas is if you have them in larger groups the agrestion goes down, it should be fine but for a 45 gallon tank your pushing it for space. i would try and go for it also Pseudotropheus demasoni are mean fellas so its hit and miss what might work i would just try it out and see how it goes.

hi punman i knew i regonised the name your also on aa right?

I'm on A Aquatica.

So should I add 5 or 10 and how soon?

 

[rED O]

i would not add any until they are big enought not to get eatin. i would only add 5 you are already getting full

 

[DJRansome]

Assuming you have no other fish in the tank, I'd add them. It IS a four foot tank, so there is room for more Dems.

I'd probably add them all and now, one inch should be big enough. Your original fish won't show their true aggression levels for another 4-6 months, at that time they will be less tolerant of additions. When you start to have multiple males maturing later on, you will have enough in there that you can remove "victim" fish and still have enough individuals in the population to spread aggression. After removing a couple your tank will reach equilibrium.

 

[punman]

I see your point. It is probably easier to pull fish out as time goes by as it is to add fish later.
I know these fish are hard to sex, but do I want to try to keep the male ratio low, or does it really matter if there are 20-25 fish in there? And when aggression comes, does one pull out the fish that are being picked on, or the ones doing the damage?

 

[DJRansome]

Many will say m:f ratio does not matter if you have enough fish. IME I still get one that is singled out and harrassed by the whole crew every couple of months. I can't bear to take out the beautiful males, but I figure these "victim" fish are one sub-dom male too many so they are the ones that get removed in my tank. So I let the fish decide the ratio for me.