About to stock a 55g

[daninfamous]

My Small LFS stock looks terrible, nothing intrested me their. Both big name places (petco/petsmart) both had great looking stock, the Petco guy even keeps fish on his own and seemed fairly knowledgeable.

Anyways I want some suggestions.

Petsmart had bumble cichlids (dunno the scientific name) and Auratus? Cichlids, that looked nice as well (yellow with like some black striples)

Petco had electric blue hap and it was with a bunch of electric yellow cichlids (according to the label) he said the blue was male and the yellow was female.

Anyways if you havnt noticed I really like the bright colors/variety.

What do you guys suggest that I can safely keep together and have a lot of color pop/variety.

I seen someone on here with demasonis? But no where local has them and im not ready to drop a ton of money on fish and shipping. And I dunno what I could keep those with? The electrics? The bumblebees?

Thanks in advance!

 

[blue2fyre]

First of all avoid bumble bees and auratus. They get large and are killeres. They can easily wipe out a whole tank once they get large enough. Electric blue haps have gray females and are not even related to electric yellow cichlid, which are mbuna. Electric yellow or Labidochromis caeruleus are a great place to start! Both males and females are a lovely bright yellow. They are also less aggressive than many other commonly found mbuna species. One of the best 55 gallon set ups is to do Labidochromis caeruleus,Pseudotropheus acei and Rusties (Iodotropheus sprengerae). This is a less aggressive tank with a lot of color and activity. For a 55 gallon 5 of each species is the best way to go with 1 male and 4 females per species.

Since you like demasoni I will also throw this out there. Another beautiful 55 gallon set up is 12 demasoni with about 7 Labidochromis caeruleus. Demasoni are VERY aggressive but by keeping them in higher numbers the aggression spreads out so they don't kill each other.

 

[blue2fyre]

If you want to go with mbuna then here is an article I wrote about them. It explains some basic care and which species to avoid and which are good beginner species.

Link

 

[daninfamous]

blu2frye thanks for the info, A second question. Do I have to buy/stock in such large numbers at the start? Or can I get a couple at a time. I don't really have the funds to drop on 19 fish at once.

 

[blue2fyre]

It's best to add them all at once. If that can't be done then I would add once species at a time starting with the least aggressive. Make sure you add at least 5 fish at once otherwise they may get picked on by the current residents.

 

[JB82]

I feel your pain in getting all the fish at once. I'm eating old pantry staples this week since I spent a hefty amount stocking my tank the last two pay periods. I did what Blue suggested and picked them up one species at a time starting with the easier going bunch. First was the group of labs who got to settle in for a few weeks on their own. When I could find them (and afford them) I got my group of demasoni and added them all over the course of two days. Had to drive to four stores to get them in the numbers I needed.