Mbunas in a 45Gal?

Q

Quartermain

From the deepest darkest abyss
Jan 10, 2005
378
0
16
My LFS has two tanks of Malawi cichlids. One with juvies and another with adults. All Mbunas (rock dwellers). The juvies are 1 - 2 inches. The adults 3 - 5 inches. I'd like to do 15 in my 45gal but I've read a lot of conflicting information and I just want to clear things up before I move ahead.

One website recommends no fewer than 15 fish in nothing smaller than a 70gal tank. Another website recommends various sized tanks including a 45-55gal setup as many as 20 fish. So you can see why I'm a little confused. One guy says I can do it, the other guys says I can't do it. Obviously I don't want to buy 15 fish and put them in jeopardy. Nor do I want to waste the money on fish killing one another.

Has anyone here done Mbunas in a 45gal before? What was your setup like and what was your experience with the fish's health and behavior? I'd appreciate any input you can give. Thanks!
 
The hard thing with figuring out how to keep mbuna is that there is a great variety among the species called mbuna, and that, coupled with different theories on how to manage the fishes' behavior (esp. aggression) lead to conflicting advice.

Mbuna, being rock dwelling fish, like to establish territories. Some mbuna can be quite aggressive in defending this territory; this mostly is males guarding territory from other males of their species (or from any fish that resembles a male of their species). Because of this territorality, you have to be careful setting up and stocking a tank with mbuna or you will have fish injured or killed by more aggressive/stronger fish.

There are a couple ways to control the problems related to territorality/aggression. One way is to stock lightly, allowing fish (again, males mostly) sufficient room to establish territories that don't overlap. (It also helps to keep 3 or 4 females per every male, so that the male's pursuit of a breeding partner can be dispersed over several fish; a single female in a confined space will often be hounded to death by an interested male.)

Another way to control aggression is to overstock. Overstocking disperses aggression by allowing a 'victim' fish, who is being pursued by an aggressor, to lose the aggressor. As the aggressor chases the target, it gets distracted by another fish, and then another, etc. In this way, the aggression is dispersed over many fish, and no single fish takes the brunt of the attacks. This only works, in my experience, in larger tanks (75g or more) where there is enough swimming room for the initial target to get away. In smaller tanks, even with overcrowding, the victim never seems to shake the aggressor.

Overstocking carries a number of problems, too. You have to have substantially increase filtration to handle the greater bioload, and you have much less margin for error should problems develop (e.g., power outages, filter failures).

You can keep mbuna in a 45, but I'd recommend you stock lightly and pick your species carefully. Are there any mbuna in particular that you like? We could probably give you an idea of how well they'd be suited to your tank.

HTH,
Jim
 
Thanks for that explaination. That dispells a lot of my confusion. As for which fish I would like to keep, I haven't learned much about the individual species yet I don't know names or relative sizes, so perhaps you could help me out there. I would like to keep a variety of purples, oranges and blues if possible.
 
I really like my Violet Cichlid but I'm not sure how big it will get. It seems quite passive compared to the others.

Have fun choosing!

Smilie
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom