good school for african cichlids

[Qdanita]

I recently bought:

2 elcetric blue johnni,
2 socolfi
2 yellow labidichromis

for my 20g tank. I wanted to know a good species school fish to add to this tank.

 

[liv2padl]

unfortunately, a twenty gallon tank is too small for the fish you already have ... don't think about adding any more. african cichlids, particularly those from Lake Malawi which are are polygamous, should be maintained in groups of 4 ... one male + three females. they cannot successfully be maintained in pairs ... they are NOT pair formers nor do they breed in pairs.

55 gallons is considered the minimum for these cichlids.

 

[Qdanita]

I think all three species are malawi right? so all need to be kept in groups of four?

 

[liv2padl]

yes, that's right ... but the "group" needs to be of the same species.

 

[wobble]

I agree with everything liv2padl said.

Yes, all three species are Malawi. No, not all mbuna (which you have) need to be kept in groups of four. This is a general rule and works for most mbuna. IMO The Melanochromis johannii, and the Pseudotropheus socolofi are best at 1M/3F......and the Labidochromis caeruleus like to be in groups of 5-7. The male/female ratio on the labs are not as critical as other mbuna. Another option would be to keep one of each of the three species you have, but they are happiest in groups.

I cannot stress enough, Malawi cichlids do not belong in a small tank. They will be very unhappy and you'll end up with one fish in the end. As liv2padl said, 55g minimum, or I would choose a different type of fish to keep.

Also, even though Malawi cichlids are highly aggressive, don't be tempted to feed them any protein or feeder fish. They are strictly vegetarians. Feeders and high protein foods will kill them.

 

[Qdanita]

will I be able to keep them in that tank until they grow up then transfer them to a bigger tank? (they are all young now).

 

[wobble]

They grow very quickly.....and.......the aggression will also begin to rise as they get bigger. If you won't be able to get a 55g or larger within a couple months, I would look at other options.

 

[Qdanita]

I will be able to move them in a month or two if that's the amount of time I will have.

 

[Qdanita]

Updated pics of fish

My 20g tank

 

[wobble]

Taking a look at the pics of your tank, just thought I'd give you some suggestions to make your mbuna happier....

When you end up getting a 55g+ tank, you may want to consider using sand substrate. The mbuna love to dig in the sand.

Add alot of rockwork for them to hide in. They like to hang out in the rocks......as their name mbuna means "rock dweller".

Malawi cichlids also do not live in normal tropical fish water. They prefer hard water. PH 7-8, GH 7+, KH 10-12, temp 76-82. If you end up buffering the water to achieve these levels, do it very slowly over many days/weeks.

I'm not sure what you currently have for filtration, but for your future tank....as most cichlids, mbuna are messy eaters and you generally have to overstock the tank to control aggression. Because of this, you should have 5-10x your total gallons in tank gph filtration.