need help fast

[musky48in]

I am going to the lfs in a couple of hours to get the first fish for my aquarium. Do I start by getting a pleco or do dive right in on the cichlids? The water is finished cycling.

46G bow front
2026 Eheim
limestone rocks

 

[valerie]

What kind of cichlids are you planning on getting? If you are only wanting a pleco for clean up duty then i would wait untill there is algae to clean.Also make sure when getting a pleco that it isnt' a common, as they will get too big for your tank.Stick with a bristlenose pleco or something similar.

 

[polosniffer]

I can see no reason for putting in the pleco before the cichlids. I also agree that you might want to stay clear of the common plecos - while they're the best ones for clearing up the algae IMO, they grow too big and produce too much waste.

 

[musky48in]

I realize that for my size tank I can't get a commen pleco. Way too big for a 46g. Golden Nuget maybe. Anyway, I went with 3 Elec. Yellows (yellow labs). I think that I got two females and one male. Black stripe on the dorsal fin is the male right? Any ideas what might make a good tank mate for this fish? I was thinking one redtail shark, one pleco, and one other species of cichlid.

 

[valerie]

For a 46g with 3 yellow labs in it you could probably add another trio of a "peaceful" mbuna. Rusties(iodotropheus sprengerae) and Ps.saulosi are too fairly non aggresive mbuna. Or jsut get more yellow labs.

I wouldnt' add a RTS or a gold nugget pleco. Gold nuggets still get fairly big and are quite delicate.They also need different water parameters then a rift lake cichlid. RTS get pretty big and can be very mean, not worth the trouble IMO.

A bristlenose pleco would be a good addition down the road if you are havign algae problems.They stay small4-6" and are the best cleaners out there.

Or if you want a bottom dweller that isnt' a pleco try Syno.petricola. they are a small syno from lake Tang. and work very well with lake malawi fish(i have 3 in my 90g malawi tank). But you need to get a group of atleast 3. So if you choose these guys i would maybe onyl add one more yellow lab and thats it.

As for your sexing yellow labs questions. it is very hard to sex yellow labs. All the visual marks like black dorsal or anal fins don't really work. The onyl real way is to vent them or buy a large group and weed out extra males once they begin breeding.