[vahid]

Hello everyone.. I am contacting you from Iran. I have a 150 US
gallons tank and its dementions are 63 inches by 20 inches by 31 inches. I
use neutral gravel and extensive rock works with many caves and tunnels for
landscaping. The filter circulation is 750 gallons per hour and if it
becomes necessary, I can upgrade the filteration to twice this much. The
tap water's hardness is ten degrees and its pH 7.8. I plan to keep a
community of mbunas and and the stucking list is as follows:
1. eightteen-twenty Ps deMasoni
2. six or seven albino Ps. socolofi
3. five-six L. fuellebornies
4. eight Electric Yellow C. labidochromis
5. five-six red Ps. Zebras
And now my questions. Is this a good stock list or I'll witness world war
III? Is there remaining room to add more fishes to this list? If yes,
should I add to the number of these fishes or I can add new groups of them?
In this list, who you guest to be the bully and who would be bulllied?And if I decide to omit the red zebras, in your opinion, what is the best substitute for them? Thanks

 

[DJRansome]

Welcome to Cichlid-forum!

Everything sounds good except the yellow labs and red zebras will crossbreed. I would not increase species or groups, except maybe 1m:7f on the labeos. Five individuals with 1m:4f will be sufficient with the socolofi, labs, estherae.

I have not kept demasoni and labeotropheus but one of them will be king.

Always the problem on what to substitute for estherae. I keep just females. That way I can still collect fry from the labs, and just not save fry spit by the estherae.

Might want to add a group of 5-6 Synodontis multipunctatus because they are great fish and they can patrol for survivor estherae fry as well.

 

[vahid]

Thanks DJRansom, after reviewing other members' mbuna tanks, I think my tank is taller than usual. I think mbunas are rather botumn orianted and the top of the tank will seem empty. If it is correct, can you suggest any mbuna that I can stock to create some activity at the top level of the tank. and can I substitute the zebras by Pseudotropheus acei?
English is not my native language and I do appologize for any spelling and grammatical erorrs.

 

[dielikemoviestars]

Your English is quite good, vahid, so no worries there! Yes, you could replace the RZ with Acei - they grow slightly larger than the rest of your fish, but your tank is definitely large enough for them. If you decide to do that, I'd try and find a strain of Labeotropheus with some red/orange on them so as to break up the plethora of blues and yellows in the tank. :thumb:

 

[vahid]

Ok i will substitute zebras by acei. It is said that for the acei placing a piece of driftwood in the tank is a good option, but I think wood in the tank of mbunas is kind of unnatural. Is it necessary to do this? and i have not found a top dweller for my tank yet, any suggestion that you may have will be appreciated. Thanks again.

 

[ridley25]

Ok i will substitute zebras by acei. It is said that for the acei placing a piece of driftwood in the tank is a good option, but I think wood in the tank of mbunas is kind of unnatural. Is it necessary to do this? and i have not found a top dweller for my tank yet, any suggestion that you may have will be appreciated. Thanks again.

I have always had wood in all my tanks - mine was purchased at an aquarium store - it has never had an effect on my pH and only stained the water for a short time. Your results may vary, but it's proof that not all driftwood crashes you pH or turns your water into tea.

There are reports of sp. acei schooling around sunken wood in the lake but I wouldn't count on it happening in your tank. Neither are they guaranteed to occupy the top regions. So it's inclusion is completely up to you.

The best way to get mbuna at the top of the the tank is to stack your rocks high. If you click on <Tanks> in my signature you will see my (much smaller) 3' tank with rocks that go up quite high - my mbuna swim in all regions because of this.

 

[DJRansome]

No need for wood and my mbuna use the entire tank anyway. Once they mature and spawn, they will chase at all levels.

 

[vahid]

Today I checked the lfs which I frequently buy my fish from it, its labeos were very nice but its aceis were rather gray than dark blue which I expected. He said that there color will be darkened after reaching adulthood. Is this correct or He lied to me in order to sell his fish.

 

[DJRansome]

I had the same reaction viewing acei in fish stores. Visit again and take a flashlight. I have never seen a bad-looking acei if the lighting was proper. They will likely look fine in your tank with good lighting.

Dark blue would be the ngara (white tails?). More commonly available here would be a light purple-blue with yellow fins. But in the LFS lighting I did find them dull gray with only the slightest hint of color.

 

[vahid]

thank you DJRansom, There tails were yellow, after reading this foram I decide to stock about 6 of them but after reviewing www.wetwebmedia.com I fear demasonis and labeos will intimidate aceis, its confusing. can anybody tell me why I have left the calm world of tetras? I think I should read more and finally after 3 or 4 years I will reach to a perfect stock list.

 

[ridley25]

I fear demasonis and labeos will intimidate aceis

In a tank your size I would not consider this as a likely problem.

Pseudotropheus sp. "acei" are extremely fast growers, so one would not expect them to be unduly harassed in a tank of juvenile fish. (buying wild caught or tank raised adults is a different story - it's much harder to mix fully grown fish that have fully grown attitudes!)

If the Labeotropheus you're considering have similar colouring to the aceis, that could be an issue. But in most cases the Labeos will be blue with bars or blotched, while the aceis will be lavender with yellow or black with white or yellow tails - so it's unlikely they'd clash.

Demasoni are viscous little fish, but they generally keep the violence among themselves.

(on a side note, when I joined this hobby and didn't know what I was doing I had a single acei and single demasoni in a tank with yellow labs; the demasoni was very aggressive toward the acei and injured him on occasion. If I had a bigger tank with multiple acei and multiple demasoni I would not expect this to happen - I had the wrong sized tank and the wrong stocking levels.)

Acei are still a good choice, but you should also have a look at Iodotropheus sprengerae (rusty cichlids): http://www.cichlid-forum.com/profiles/s ... php?id=707

kevin

 

[vahid]

A few rustis which I have found here were very drab and at least in my opinnion moddy brown. I live in a third world country, and unfortunately the option of ordering online is not possible for me. I am limited to the local fish stores' inventories. and except for melanochrumis which are widely available finding any good quality mbuna is difficult. I think except for the above fish ps saulosi is the only mbuna that I can buy at now. And I think between demasoni and saulosi the demasoni is nicer.

 

[ridley25]

If that's the case I would gladly stock M. estherae even knowing they may cross with L. caeruleus.

As long as you don't go out of your way to help potential hybrid fry survive, you shouldn't see many reach maturity. And that's IF they hybridize. With enough labs and zebras it may not even come to pass.

kevin

 

[vahid]

Then my choice would be red zebras or acei. ok, I think labeos and electric yellow labs will be the first fish in my tank, and after a week demasonis and socolofi. I think till next month I can choose between red zebras or acei. Is this a good stocking schedule?excuse me for these endless questions but because of lack of experience in the field of african cichlids these matters make me confused.

 

[ridley25]

It's always best to cycle your tank without fish and add them all at once. If they grow up together they are often more tolerant of each other.

An article here: http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/f ... ycling.php
If it's not helpful there is a member, Tim, who goes by the name prov356 who is very helpful on the topic.

If you find yourself needing to add different species at different times it is best to add the mildest species first.

A fish added to a stocked tank either realizes it gets no territory or it forcibly removes another fish from its chosen territory. If a socolofi wants to kick out a lab that's usually no problem. If the same socolofi wants to kick out a Labeo, someone is going to get hurt.

I would suggest the Labidochromis caeruleus first and the Labeotropheus fuelleborni last. It's a draw between the Ps. demasoni, the M. estherae and the Ps. socolofi as to which is more aggressive.

If you go with Ps. sp. "acei" instead of M. estherae I would treat the acei as the same as the L. caeruleus; add early.

And if you have absolutely no control over the order, that's life. Do what you have to do.

If possible, keep a 10 or 20 gallon tank as a hospital tank for those fish that get injured and/or need to be sold back/given away.

kevin

 

[vahid]

Currently There are 4 silver scatts in that tank, after rehoming them I will make a 100% watter change. The chosen fuelleburnis are very colorful and I fear if I don't buy them soon others will buy them.

 

[ridley25]

If you're afraid of missing out on them, get them! I can't blame you, they are wonderful cichlids!

Some people have had success rearranging their rockwork/decor when adding new fish.

Some people have said their dominant fish immediately reclaim their area whether new rocks/decor have been put there or not.

Either way, it's worth a try when adding smaller, less aggressive fish after the Labeos.

kevin

 

[vahid]

In your opinnion which is the best catfish for my setup. petricola or multi, multis are very expensive here. If I stock petricola what will be the uptimmal number?

 

[ridley25]

Multipunctatus have more of a reputation as a fry eater/preventer, so they are preferable if avoiding breeding and/or hybrids is the goal.

But if they are dramatically more expensive then you will be fine with petricola. They are not overly large, so I would get 5-7 for your tank.

kevin

 

[vahid]

Thank you for your quick and helpful replies. I will begin next sonday. I currently have a 120L empty tank which can be used as a provisional home for labeos after labs, catfishes and socolofis I will add them to their permanant home. Wish me luck