My 180 Gallon idea

K

Kevin007

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May 27, 2008
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I have been thinking about tangs, but their price and general lack of colour makes me want to go for mbunas.

20 Yellow Labs (or more)
15 Aceis
15 Rusties
1 RTBS (had him for a long time)
15 Multi cats (might sub for clown loaches if too expensive)
3 BN Plecos

^ That is what I will keep for sure

- I want a large group of demasonis (15-25) but their agressive nature scares me
- the afra jalo reef are pretty cool as well
- salousi (if i dont get the demasonis)
- Labeotropheus trewavasae (i love thier noses)
- Black aceis

So..yea I'm interested in the fish listed above, how do you think I should stock them? How many of each? General thought of BN plecos and clown loaches? Thanks
 
Tanganyikas have color, well a few so to say but not as much as the mbuna do, but i see where you are coming from with the mbuna and the colors..

Trets, sexfasciatus, lelupi, buscheri, calvus, frontosa, cyps and couple of harder to get tanganyika specimens. Just a few examples.

Those demasoni in a group that size will mostly focus on each other so you should be fine as for how many i wouldnt do anything less than 15.

The trewavasae are just as aggressive as any other mbuna a more docile pick would be the feulleborni and this species still posses that special nose feature that you want.

Saulosi are really cool and a group would look pretty snazzy but you will have a lot of yellow going on in this tank..

Good luck my friend this sounds like it is going to be fun, please post photos..
 
RTBS? Not registering, could ya please spell it out for me, LOL.

I'd go with the fuelleborni as well. A group of demasoni or saluoisi would fit in just fine as well, they'd be more worried about each other for the most part. Pitbull pretty well hit the nail on the head.

WYite
 
Wyomingite said:
RTBS? Not registering, could ya please spell it out for me, LOL.
WYite
Click to expand...

RTBS=Red tail black shark (I'm almost sure). I would say yes for the labs and C. afra jalo reef; no for the saulosis (it would be too much yellow as Pittbull said) and no for the demasonis because problems with another banded fish as C. afra jalo reef are possible and I prefer this last one. The other species of mbunas are great choices, IMO.
 
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A 180G is most likely for me, although I might acquire a 2nd hand 300G from a restaurant closing down or buying a 180G 2nd hand, but I'll most likely be buying the 180 so I'll stock accordingly.

The Demasoni is one of the fish that I really want. I think I'll give up on the saulosis because I'll have enough yellow and blue stripes. but I am very concerned about thier agression, even in a 180G tank.

The BN pleco is another thing I'm worried about, possible bully issue?

Here is the rough idea, tell me what you think

20 Yellow Labs (more b/c of fry)
30 Acei
10 Black Acei
15 Rusties
15-25 Demasoni (hoping to establish a breeding "colony")

15 Clown Loaches (syno multipunctatus are $20 each, no way)
3 BN pleco
1 Red Tailed Black Shark

I have 19 fish in a 55 Gallon, I think I'll be pretty good with the amount of fish in the 180G.
 
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If you put the plecos in the tank a week before adding the mbunas, their chances should be better IMO. That's what I did with my BN and it is doing great after 5 months with my mbunas. I would do the same with the clown loaches.
Looking the numbers, I think you are overstocking a little bit (you have a minimum of 109 fishes and a maximum of 119 in your stock plan). I would stick to just one type of acei to avoid crossbreeding; I prefer 20 yellow tail aceis and take out the 10 black aceis. If you add also 20 demasonis, my count gives me a total of 94 fishes which is better but a little high yet, IMO. I think that with 10 loaches and 2 plecos (88 fishes now), we are nearly perfect.
 
Or you could add 3 synodontis and that would still be a good number of syno's, those loaches get pretty big and are ich magnets not worth the trouble they will pose when they get stressed from all the aggression..

Man i have kept plenty of pleco's in with africans without issue no eyes were missing and the only thing i can honestly say and experienced was that when i had pleco's the cichlids would mess wtih them so bad that they turned aggressive, i had a sailfin out of control in my 120gal actually had to get rid of him due to aggression.

I would go with the 3 syno's and the 3 BN pleco's

I also agree with efors on the acei's as well you would be better off with the same species, hey if you get a chance throw me a link with the black acei's i havent seen those yet sounds sweet thou..

The redtail well they really dont tolerate too much on the higher ends of aggression and with water changes past 40% you will need to add a dechlor like stress coat, man i cant tell you how many redtails i have lost due to forgetting to add stress coat when i did a 50% water change..

And as always thanks efors and wyom for the props..


MERRY CHRISTMAS MY FRIENDS P.S. NO I AM NOT YELLING HEHEHE
 
Hi there!

I currently have a 55 Gallon setup with 7 yellow labs, 6 aceis, 5 rusties and 1 RTBS, I'm pretty much tripling the number of fishes. I think the activity level is pretty good right now.

Pitbull, here is a link to a video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFnWfCWhcHQ
They are pretty much black aceis, yellow tail and stuff, I've seen another colour variety with white tails.

The RTBS is doing pretty well. I will not get the Synos because I like to have fishes in large groups (RTBS is an exception) and for 3 multi cats ($60) I can get alot of clown loaches.

I'm currently doing some research on CL to see how they do in mbuna tanks. I've always wanted to keep clown loaches but there really isn't a suitable tank for them. They get big so you need a big tank, and its not like you are going to keep them with small tetras, so this is one opportunity for me to keep them. I'm glad to hear the plecos will do fine (I plan on breeding them too).

efors: heres the updated list

20 Yellow Labs
20 Acei
15 Rusties
15 - 25 Demasoni
10 - 15 Clown Loaches
3 BN pleco
1 Red Tailed Black Shark

I'm hoping to raise some Demasoni fry to populate the tank since they are pretty expensive. Once I hit a certain amount, I'll just create a fry pile and its survival of the fittest.

EDIT: Oh and how do giant vals and java fern do in low light mbuna tanks?
 
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