I'd probably suggest just getting 5 Yellow Labs and increasing the Acei to 5. It is a good rule of thumb to try to have a ratio of 1M per 3F or 4F. It helps spread out the male aggression over more females when the male decides to get frisky. I'm not really familiar with any true red or green mbuna that I would suggest for your 55 gallon community. But the Rusties will have a hint of red in their coloration. You could also add a pleco and/or synodontis catfish group to the tank for fun and garbage duty. I think you are on your way to a nice group of mbuna!
55 gal African Cichlid stocking thread
- Thread starter spencerguy1
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I'd probably suggest just getting 5 Yellow Labs and increasing the Acei to 5. It is a good rule of thumb to try to have a ratio of 1M per 3F or 4F. It helps spread out the male aggression over more females when the male decides to get frisky. I'm not really familiar with any true red or green mbuna that I would suggest for your 55 gallon community. But the Rusties will have a hint of red in their coloration. You could also add a pleco and/or synodontis catfish group to the tank for fun and garbage duty. I think you are on your way to a nice group of mbuna!
You can try to locate some Green Afra's, they are pretty rare around most places, I heard Eddie Martin of http://bluegrassaquatics.com/ had some, I have too many Mbuna in my 120gal, I wish you were close i could hook you up on some sweet Mbuna, as for reds you are only going to find some really mean Mbuna Red Zebra, Trewavasae and some Peacock cichlids..
I would start with 6 juveniles of each of these 3 species. You will have no problems with them, providing enough rockwork. It is curious, but I have never had any problems with my group of mainganos; but it is just my experience.
I found that the acei are a little different in that they school together, don't appear territorial, and show no male/male aggression, but they do get rather large. I started with peacocks and later added some milder mbuna such as the acei, yellow labs, and a snow white socolofi. So far it's worked out great. There's even several 1" yellow labs that have survived. Tried to catch them to put in a grow out tank but they're very quick and have plenty of cover. These upside-down baskets that they can easily slip into helps.
Ok, thx for the tips, Im gonna stick with my most recent suggestion. This sounds really fun. Any other tips?
