Tank Setup

[nick_flano]

Hey everyone,

Thought I'd post since I havn't posted in a while, just finished rearranging my tank heres some pics tell me what you think.

I know I'm a terrible photographer so excuse the bad quality.

The tank is a 3" about 40g and it has:
2 Electric Yellows as far as i know 1 male 1 female
2 Red Top Zebras one really pretty the other is quite dull
4 Colombian Tetra's left from cycling years ago lol

I will be getting 1 or 2 more yellows and leave it at that coz i know its not a big tank

 

[Coler]

Nice rockwork & good looking fish.

I would agree with your plan to put a couple more electric yellows in there - try for females.

If you want to keep another species, and you're not too attached to the zebras, try to exchange them for some iodotropheus sperengae (rusty cichlids). These guys are very pretty fish, stay small, similar level of aggression to the labs and won't interbreed with them. Another option would be cynotilapia afra - they would also look great with the yellow labs and again stay small, although they are somewhat more aggressive than the labs - but not up to the homicidal tendencies of many mbuna.

You should look to get 1 male and say 3 females of either of those and those two groups would stock the tank pretty nicely. What kind of filtration are you running as a matter of interest ?

The zebras may or may not be ok. It sounds like you either have 1 dominant and one sub dominant male, or a male and a female. If the latter the male is likely to stress the female to death attempting to breed with her - that's why you stock in harem groups of 1 male to 2 or 3 females but your tank is not big enough for a group of zebras. If the former, the dominant male is pretty likely to kill the sub-dominant. I would definitely try to change them out for one of the suggestions above, and also remove the tetras as they are pretty unlikely to last for long.

 

[Rbishop]

Nice tank!

 

[nick_flano]

Thanks for the advice Coler,
I will definitely be adding two more yellows, I haven't had any problems with aggression (fingers crossed) they all seem to get along well, no fin nipping or excessive chasing. I do like the rusty's but I found it hard to get them here (I live in Australia). If you have any other suggestions about stocking it would be appreciated. If i can find someone to take the zebra's i will try to find something to replace them.

Would 4 yellows, and 4 of another mbuna that are roughly same size as the yellows be a good stocking plan?

 

[nick_flano]

I found at livefish.com.au Rusty's for about $12 each, the problem is I wont be able to see the fish before I buy them, i'll see my lfs there normally pretty good at getting what fish i want.

 

[Coler]

4 yellows and 4 other mbuna of similar aggression levels (i.e. low for mbuna) would be perfect - the iodotropheus sperengae (rusty cichlids) or cynotilapia afra would be ideal for that - and they won't interbreed as they are of different genus which is another bonus.