Uh oh...

[justahannah]

I posted a while back about my mom opening up a bar and advice on what to do with a 135 gallon tank she picked up for it....I finally got a chance to visit (she's 4 hours away) to see what she's done with the bar (it's gorgeous!) and the tank (also very nice). Long story short, I'm concerned about her stock/compatibility. She has a lot of years of experience with community tanks, but not so much with cichlids other than an oscar and some angels we had years ago.

In the 135 she currently has 1 blood parrot, 2 electric blue jack dempseys, the two fish in the attached picture (I don't know what they are), and a 6" sailfin pleco. I know she's dead set on keeping these fish together and so far they seem to get along fine...they're all in the 3-4" range, active and healthy looking, minimal chasing. She wants to add a few more cichlids, but I don't know what type. Please advise me on potential issues with her current stock as well as what she would be safe to add (if anything) so I can try to push her in the right direction. Thank you!

[blue2fyre]

The orange one is an OB zebra (Metriaclima estherae(OB)) and the yellow one is a yellow lab (Labidochromis Caeruleus). These two are african cichlids and more specifially mbuna (rock dwelling cichlids from lake Malawi). Generally it's not a good idea to mix african and South American cichlids. For one thing mbuna are herbavores and too much meat/protien in their diet can lead to a fatal disease known as bloat. If it was me I would remove these two and stock more south american cichlids. If she wants more color and activity should could remove the other three and set up a mbuna tank. You could have tons of mbuna in a tank that size keeping one male per 4 females for each species.

[snoopy65]

I would remove the Mbuna and add more SA or CA cichlids. There are many from which to choose. Just make sure she chooses ones that are of the approximate same size and disposition. She also can have dithers like Silver Dollars and maybe a school of yoyo loaches or clown loaches.

[hap3niz]

how're the ebjd's??
dont they tend to be less aggressive.. and sometimes the other fish will beat them to the food? do you have any pics of them?

and.. yeah, more sa cichlids would look nice!

[jpappy789]

I've heard that EBJD's are supposed to be more peaceful compared to regular JD's but relative to other fish they are still brutes from what I have seen.

[justahannah]

Here's shots of the JDs. So far they aren't particularly terrifying, pretty mellow, but they're still 3-4". What other SA cichlids would work with this set-up if I can talk her into rehoming the Africans? Thankss so much for the input so far :D

[7itanium]

the one on the left is most certainly a zebra (OB)

the one on the right is indeed a yellow lab... but it looks to me like its a possible hybrid

[snoopy65]

Severums, Convicts, Nicaraganese, Robertsoni, Polleni, Sajica are all compatible. I am sure someone else will give you more but these I have personal experience with. A Chocolate/Rhino Pleco also will work in that tank.

[justahannah]

I'm back for more help and full of questions. She's decided to keep the South Americans in the large tank (we're thinking about adding a salvini and maybe a small school of silver dollars? Input please) and wants to set up a smaller tank in her back room for the Africans. Leaning towards a 46 bowfront, she doesn't want anything longer than 3' due to lack of wall space back there. Would that be large enough for the OB, the lab, and a few more of each of the appropriate sex? Are there any other Africans that would fit (personality and size-wize) and add color contrast? What about a smaller variety of pleco? We can get plenty of slate for free and I'll probaby end up in charge of building caves...is it better to have a couple sets with open space between or to fill the whole background with rockwork? Thanks again for all the help :)

[justahannah]

I have the African Issue sorted out on another thread, wanted to post a pic of the big tank since I rescaped it (adding fish and driftwood) while I was down there. The current (and final) stocking is 2 blood parrots, 1 EB Dempsey (the other passed away), 2 Salvini, 1 sailfin pleco as well as 2 big silver dollars, a 6" pleco, and a 6" chinese algae eater. The last 4 fish came with the 46g I bought for the Africans (they're all are about 5 years old and had to come with), the first group are all still juvies. I'm hoping at the age they are, the pleco and CAE don't go through a huge growth spurt. Anywho....here's the tank.