Ok, I was telling my friend how much I was enjoying this website and how easy it was to get advice here. He recently had an mbuna tank. He bought them as adults from a show tank in the lfs in his area. There were about 20 of them and after 9 months all lhe had was a kennyi, an eb johanni, and an auratus. One of these three or all three of them slowly killed off all the rest of the fish. He was very upset after forking out a nice price for them. Anyway, he just restocked (got rid of the 3 terrors) with yellow labs and acei in hopes to keep aggression controlled. He has them with a school of petricola and was wondering if there might be another cichlid you guys would recommend in thsi set-up. I know all cichlids are aggressive (especially mbuna) but at the same time, yellow labs and acei are very docile compared to most of them. Is there another kind of mbuna that would mix well by not being very aggressive or should he just go with this set-up? Thanks.
yellow lab and acei tankmates
- Thread starter jmatthewhill
- Start date
What size tank has he got ? There are some really nice options for labs and aceis - iodotropheus sperengae (rusty cichlids), Pseudotropheues species (demasoni, socolofi, albino socolofi are particularly nice but they may interbreed with the acei) and cynotilapia afra are all options. Pretty much any of the less aggressive mbuna will be great.
I'm not surprised at his experience with the auratus. They are capable/likely to turn out to be absolute tank destroyers. I would never recommend them unless in a huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge tank. Pound for pound, probably the nastiest cichlid out there.
I'm not surprised at his experience with the auratus. They are capable/likely to turn out to be absolute tank destroyers. I would never recommend them unless in a huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge tank. Pound for pound, probably the nastiest cichlid out there.
i had read that demasoni are small but nasty. his blue johanni was absolutely nasty. no way he will want another one of them. any other suggestions?
Coler pretty much hit it with your less aggressive mbunas. If you wanted to go more aggressive, then you could add a metriaclima estherae (red zebra) or metriaclima pyrsonotos (red top zebra). The red zebra is one of my favorites with their bright orange coloring. It will be hit or miss, and you may need to swap fish out over time. You may also be surprised by the aggression shown - I had to remove my Afra for being a terror to all the other fish, and my Lab holds his own against what are normally more aggressive fish in the tank.
looks like he may just have to stick with what he has because he has had some problems with some of the others you have mentioned
I put 2 peacocks and 1 hap in my tank. One peacock did not make it - not quite sure what happened to him, just found him dead one day. Only thing I had noticed was that he did not eat the night before. As for the remaining peacock and hap, they are doing fine. That has been my experience so far. I know that when I added them, some of the more experienced folks on the site warned me that it was one of those situations where it might work and it might not - I appear to be lucky at this point in that it appears to be working.
well...haps...the larger ones...tank is not really big enough for.
peacocks - hit or miss. The more orthodox thinking is that mbuna are overly aggressive for peacocks, and the latter will be stressed and out competed for food, leading to ill health & death.
Also, the peacocks lack the exceptionally flexible spine of the mbuna and need more swimming space than rockwork, so you need to provide a slightly different environment than a pure mbuna tank.
Best bet at getting it to work is to put the peacocks in, getting them up to a decent size - like 4 inches, and add less aggressive mbuna species as juveniles at that stage.
peacocks - hit or miss. The more orthodox thinking is that mbuna are overly aggressive for peacocks, and the latter will be stressed and out competed for food, leading to ill health & death.
Also, the peacocks lack the exceptionally flexible spine of the mbuna and need more swimming space than rockwork, so you need to provide a slightly different environment than a pure mbuna tank.
Best bet at getting it to work is to put the peacocks in, getting them up to a decent size - like 4 inches, and add less aggressive mbuna species as juveniles at that stage.
I agree to be agreeing to agree with Coler the Man.. Plainly i AGREE..LOL
Hey Coler Austin wants to know what's a Sprog..
Hey Coler Austin wants to know what's a Sprog..
