75 gallon stocking...

D

djmarshak

AC Members
Jan 21, 2009
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Minneapolis Minnesota
after toying with a Tanganyika tank I decided to do Malawi Mbuna instead (for many reasons - ease of care, expense, etc)

the current rig is a 75g standard with two Emperor 400s, I did a fish less cycle and this weekend added stock, I am interested in hearing the "experts" input on my stock, how did I do, or while I have some problems on the horizon. I took some care to try to find the least aggressive mbuna, and the two more aggressive species I have are not conspecific to any of the others:

- Labidochromis caeruleus (Lion's Cove I) X 4 (1 male, 3 females)
- Metriaclima lombardoi X 1 (I know Kenyi's are tough customers but I only have one female)
- Pseudotropheus sp. "Acei" (Msuli) X 4 (1 male, 3 females)
- Metriaclima estherae (Red) X 4 (1 male, 3 females)
- Pseudotropheus demasoni (Pombo Rocks) X 1 (sex unknown)
- Pseudotropheus socolofi X 2 (2 females)

Does anyone have any feedback? I didn't invite a massacre did I? All of the fish are roughly 2.5 inches right now. As they get older/larger I plan to add a cansister for additional mechanical filtration only. I know Kenyi and Demasoni are nasty buggers but I needed more blue than just the socolofi and unfortunately I have had no luck finding the cobalt blue zebra variety up here. Is this stocked enough for a 75 gallon or do I need more fish?

thoughts appreciated
 
one other note: after my first ever attempt at a fishless cycle these 16 have now been in the tank for roughly 5 days - readings were 0.0 ammonia, 0.2 nitrite, and 5 ppm nitrate - I'm watching closely but it would seem that the process worked, at least to some degree. I never got the huge nitrate spike, even after I saw my nitrites explode and then fall back towards zero, which I thought was odd. I'm watching closely, if it looks like a "mini cycle" is underway I guess I'll just do lots of 1/3 water changes
 
Stocking sounds okay to me. I haven't kept your specific stocklist and of course every fish is different. One lone Kenyi female should be okay, you're just going to have to find out:)
 
First: I would keep the demasoni and kenyi singly as they are now. That was a great idea, IMO.
Second: Yes, you can add more fishes to a 75g. Labs and Aceis look great in bigger groups and with these 2 species, sex ratio is not so important due to their docile nature for mbuna standards. I would add to complete 6 fishes of each one of these 2 species. I would also add 1 male and 1 female socolofi to complete 4 of them. If my Math is better than Pittbull's, you will have 22 mbunas which is a good number for a 75g, IMHO.
Third: The only thing that worries me a little bit is the high possibility of crossbreeding between yellow labs and red zebras; but, as well as you keep enough females for the males of these 2 species, this risk can be reduced. Your M. estherae sex ratio is perfect right now.
Good luck and enjoy your fish tank!
 
What efors said hehehe and just a side note any and all Mbuna are unpredictable at any point, you may witness a crazy cluster of aggression or it may turn out to be tranquil serene lifestyle..

In any event just pay close attention to detail and remove any that fall out of this realm..
 
thanks for the input - I'm trying to do the proper research. So far its been relatively peaceful and the only aggression shown has been a minor tiff between the male lion's cove and one of the red zebras (of all things, those two).

I like the idea of boosting the number to 22, especially considering if I add 6 more instead of a couple then there will be well distributed "new fish are targets" type aggression.

I was thinking of Rusties also, I've heard they are fairly docile
 
Rusty's are a nice fish but do remember they are African usually there fine but i have seen rogue rusty's come about.. usually in numbers they have the best chance..
 
Pittbull said:
Rusty's are a nice fish but do remember they are African usually there fine but i have seen rogue rusty's come about.. usually in numbers they have the best chance..
Click to expand...

I agree completely. I have seen rogue male and female rusties in mine. I would not add less than 5 of them in a tank; 6 is better.
 
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