New tank with 6 Cichlids Newbie

tanyaj77

tanyaj77

AC Members
Jul 8, 2006
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Winnipeg, MB, Canada
Hi there,
I have recently purchased a 55gallon tank (48" long) and have added 6 cichlids. (2 kenyis, 2 electric yellows, and 2 red zebras) they share the tank with a plecko (not sure what kind) and a catfish (not sure what kind either) the pet stores around here are not very helpful and was looking for some advice from you experts :)
Will the catfish be okay once the cichlids grow bigger or should I move him? They are all pretty small right now (the cat and plecko are bigger than all except the kenyi's)
I am also looking for ANY advice at all that will help me be the best fish keeper that I can be.
Also, how often should I do water changes with this group, and how much should I cahnge at a time?
Thanks!
 
belldin said:
once a week 20% when u add more fish up it to 40 or 50%
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Thanks for the reply! Do you think it would be okay to add more fish? I don't want to overcrowd them. If so, how many more would be appropriate?
I will try and get some pictures of the cat (the guy at the pet store made it sound like ***** cat, but maybe that will give some idea) Maybe someone can help identify them with pictures.
 
yes in a 55gal mbuna tank i would have about 13-15 fish total a well stocked african tank will cut down on agrestion. i have a 55gal with 2 cobalt blue zebras, 1 yellow zebra, 1 yellow lab, 3 jewlchilds, 2 rubyred pecoks, 1 rock krib, 1 synodite , 1 commom pelco. pelco is 3 times the size of othe fish about 14 inches other wise he would not be in there with them. later on he will be moved they will start to pick on him
 
Sorry, now that I look at the pics (I was too excited the first time) I see it's not the same cat. I'll try and post pics.
 
Definitely get more Electric Yellows. They are less aggressive than the Kenyi and Red Zebras, so you'll want to have a larger group of them. I'd say you could have as many as 6 of them and maybe up the other 2 two groups to 4.

I'm not sure what the word was supposed to be up there ;), but could your catfish be a Syno? http://www.quebec-cichlides.com/images/syno_multi.jpg That picture is of a Synodontis multipunctatus. There are other types though.

What type of filtration do you have on the tank? You want to greatly overfilter a Mbuna tank, as they are very messy fish. 25% weekly will be fine now, but when you add more fish, I'd make it 50% weekly.

I am also looking for ANY advice at all that will help me be the best fish keeper that I can be
Click to expand...
What are you feeding them?
 
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