72g Bowfront Mbuna Tank

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myswtsins

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Jun 15, 2008
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Thats a cool red tail..
I am not sure how I did not see this but thanks! :)


So today I ripped my whole tank apart to catch and sex all my mbuna. All I can say is that stacking irregular shaped rocks securely has NOTHING on catching Mbunas! :) So I pulled 20 extra males from the tank, every single one of my Rustys was male! :mad2: So I have decided to omit them from the final lineup. I did add 1 male rusty back into the tank before I realized that there were none in the female bin so I will have to chase him down again. Here is what I was left with...

1:3 Lab. caeruleus (Lion's Cove I)
1:3 Ps. socolofi (Albino)
1:0 I. sprengerae (Rusty) Tempoarily!!
1:1 Ps. "Acei" (Msuli)
1:5 Mel. cyaneorhabdos (Maingano)
1:3 Met. estherae (OB) (OB Red Zebras)

So once I get that last Rusty out the only group that needs attention is the Acei (my favorite!). I only need 2-3 females, think I could add only 2-3 2" females to the tank with the 2.25"-4.50" inhabitants without any injuries? The biggest in the tank IS the male acei btw. I would be concerned with conspecies aggression usually but the Acei are super cool, always schooling together, even the 5 males in the all male "for sale" tank are schooling still! This is why they are my fav though...and their adorable grumpy face too! :)

Total number of fish will be about 22 Mbuna, 1 BN, 1 RTBS, 2 skunk loaches. 22 Mbuna is a little lighter than planned for overstocking, should I add another group? or some haps or something?

The For Sale tank is awesome looking though! Wayyyyy over stocked but only temporary (hopefully all being pickup with the next 2 weeks!). 20 3"-4" fish in a 30g!! :uhoh: It is a 3ft tank at least!

Next pics are of the sorry state of the main tank being thrown back together! VERY temporary, hoping to add the new females ASAP and will rescape at that time. Don't mind all the hard spot algae on the back glass please, it has been hidden by the rock tower until now. :)

Last pics are of the monster Acei. He is at least twice the size of the next largest fish in the tank, why he grew so much faster I just don't know but I like it! :)

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Pittbull

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Apr 14, 2007
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Cool that is a sweet Acei.. I just placed 11 of them in my 120gal Tang Community for Dithers and a reason for my Synodontis Multipunct's to breed..

I would just add a larger colony of Acei instead of a new colony of something different..
 

myswtsins

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I think I agree with you about the larger group of Acei. It is nice seeing a species stick together in this setup, very unlike everyone else in the tank.
 

efors

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Great job done, myswtsins! I think you will not have any problems adding 2-3 female aceis; their conspecific behavior is excellent as you pointed out. Also, I think that yes, you can add another fish group in the tank; but with the species you have already, IMO it's better to stay with mbunas. They can be too aggressive to haps or peacocks.
 

myswtsins

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Great job done, myswtsins! I think you will not have any problems adding 2-3 female aceis; their conspecific behavior is excellent as you pointed out. Also, I think that yes, you can add another fish group in the tank; but with the species you have already, IMO it's better to stay with mbunas. They can be too aggressive to haps or peacocks.
Thanks efors for your continued support and input! I figured the mbunas would be too much on haps or peacocks but thought I'd through it out there. When I started my research for this tank I TOTALLY ignored anything not Mbuna, stayed very focus so I only know the few things I've happened to hear around here about haps or peacocks.

Now where to buy just a few small female acei, that's the hard part! :) I am gonna try to strike a deal with Atlantis Fish Hatchery since I bought most of my fish from them in the first place.
 

efors

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Jun 17, 2008
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Now where to buy just a few small female acei, that's the hard part! :) I am gonna try to strike a deal with Atlantis Fish Hatchery since I bought most of my fish from them in the first place.
Well, good luck with your search for them!:thm:
 
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