Are demasoni that bad???

L

lippy415

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Apr 29, 2007
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I really think these are beautiful fish. But left and right I'm hearing horror stories about them being bullies. They are mean to each other and not to other cichlids, is that correct? If I put like 20 of them in my tank, would they be okay with each other? What goes well with them? I've heard electric yellows, anything else? Red zebras? Rustys? I've started countless posts about stocking and keep changing my mind. :hypnotized: I wanted mbuna, then peacocks and haps, now I'm back to mbuna again. My 125gal has been cycling for 2 1/2 weeks (feels like 2 1/2 years) but I want to be ready to roll once the sucker is finished. What do you all think??? I keep hearing from people having like 30 fish in their 55 gal tanks. Is that okay? How many (if I finally pick three species) of each should I put in a 125? Any advice on syno catfish in there?

Thanks,
:newbie: Erin
 
Demasoni can be relentlessly aggressive toward their own kind, and, to some extent, other fish which resemble them. They're pretty much compatible with other types of mbuna.

In a 125gal you can house quite a few demasoni (15-20 or more easy) in addition to other mbuna you plan to keep. Even in decent quantity demasoni will continue to be very aggressive toward their own kind but greater numbers of them make it hard for them to single out a particular 'victim' (before either switching targets or getting chased themselves).

If you're going with just 3 species you could probable get 4-6 of each of the other two species.
 
Do you think I should replace the demasoni with electric blues or cobalt blue zebras? They would achieve almost the same look right? Would they get along better? (Less aggression?) I just want a peaceful tank with bright colors for my family to enjoy. :)
 
If a peaceful tank is the priority you could select less aggressive species (rusties, acei, yellow labs, etc, do any of these appeal to you?).

If you omit the demasoni you could stock more species since you won't require as many fish per species (meaning instead of 15 demasoni you could acquire three additional species of 5 each or something). You could theoretically have cobalt blue zebras, yellow labs, and electric blue johanni's, along with two other species, etc)

Pseudotropheus saulosi are similar in appearance to demasoni (well, the matured males are) and they're dimorphic as well, so could go with them and get two color patterns in one species.

If you're limiting yourself to a max of three species (and excluding demasoni) you could go with 3 groups of 8-10 each. If the 3 species don't include saulosi, you could also include a single demasoni to the mix.

A 125gal is a large gives you lots of options, and shouldn't be too hard to maintain the 'peace' (or at least the mbuna version of it), especially if you have a lot of rocks and acquire all of them as juvies.
 
I also really like the rusties, acei, and saulosi. So let's look at numbers. I didn't mean to limit myself to 3 species, just thought I had to for the demasoni. So if we nix those from the mix (or just have 1), how many of each?

Yellow labs: 10
rusties: 10
saulosi: 10
acei: I think someone told me just to get 1 or 2 of these...
demasoni: 1

How does that sound? It would look very nice, right? Would they all get along? I think I'm finally coming close to the right mix... :y220e:

Thanks for all your help!
Erin
 
I'd omit the demasoni if you're going to stock the saulosi, due to the resemblence.

Your stocking plan looks good. Alternatively, you could go with four groups of 8 (boosting the quantity of acei).
 
Sounds like a good mix.
 
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