Stocking reduction
- Thread starter Dego510
- Start date
Ya, they are nasty little dudes sometimes. I started with 13, had an alpha male die in a freak thing and all hell broke loose after. I have 8 almost full grown in my tank right now. I have wanted to up my numbers for a while, but I had to be patient as I have about 60 dems growing up right now, lol. I have 37 in the 1-1.5'' range as of right now. When they get to around two inches, they 5-6 will be added to my main tank. The 8 have worked for a while though...
Back to topic, in a 55g u are basically allowed up to 3 species as long as they stay a decent size. Dems, like u know, need to be overstocked. Yellow labs get some size to them, but are not monsters. albino socolofi also get some size, but are not gonna get as big as the acei were going to. Its ur tank, so final stock is up to u, but you would be relatively safe adding the albinos. Just food for thought. I agree with everyone though, ur tank looks great. how long has it been setup? I have some holey rock and it got covered in algae, how does ur stay clean?
Back to topic, in a 55g u are basically allowed up to 3 species as long as they stay a decent size. Dems, like u know, need to be overstocked. Yellow labs get some size to them, but are not monsters. albino socolofi also get some size, but are not gonna get as big as the acei were going to. Its ur tank, so final stock is up to u, but you would be relatively safe adding the albinos. Just food for thought. I agree with everyone though, ur tank looks great. how long has it been setup? I have some holey rock and it got covered in algae, how does ur stay clean?
Ya, I definitely think I'm going to add the albino socolofi, especially the more I look at pics of them.
I've had the tank for a year, however, I bought the holey rock off CL about 4 months ago. Before I put it in the tank, I soaked all of it in bleach for 2 days. Now, I don't know if 4 months is enough time for algae to cover the holey rock. What you can't see in the pictures is that all the holey rock have some speckles of algae on them, especially the center rock that looks like an arrow pointed up.
The tank also contains one BN Pleco and is not in direct sunlight. Plus I typically only keep the lights on for 5 hours a day. I don't know if these 3 things are what's keeping the algae away.
Hopefully, the holey rocks don't get too covered in algae since I like the way the rockwork looks now . . . finally.
I've had the tank for a year, however, I bought the holey rock off CL about 4 months ago. Before I put it in the tank, I soaked all of it in bleach for 2 days. Now, I don't know if 4 months is enough time for algae to cover the holey rock. What you can't see in the pictures is that all the holey rock have some speckles of algae on them, especially the center rock that looks like an arrow pointed up.
The tank also contains one BN Pleco and is not in direct sunlight. Plus I typically only keep the lights on for 5 hours a day. I don't know if these 3 things are what's keeping the algae away.
Hopefully, the holey rocks don't get too covered in algae since I like the way the rockwork looks now . . . finally.
I think it is more like some kind of personal fear that I have, Justin. My experience with BN pleco and mbuna was not good at the long run. I know synos are better suited to live with mbuna, but with the huge appetite that mbuna have, I would be always afraid about the possibility of seeing how the synos should slowly starve to death; as it happened with my pleco. Apart from that, S. petricola are IMO the most beautiful of all synos and I really like them a lot. But I think I would have them with some Tangs, better.
Ya, plecos and mbuna can be a bad recipe. when i was a newb, I lost a few. Even BN plecos can be hit or miss cause mbuna are fascinated by their eyes. I have never had an issue with my mbuna and my petricola. the mbuna ignored them from day 1 and I added them when they were pretty small. The petricola actually bump the mbuna away sometimes, lol... I understand the fear, but I havent seen anyone lose the petricola to mbuna. plecos on the other hand tend to meet a bad fate.
Hey, Justin: Do you feed your synos with a different kind of food or do they take the same thing that the mbuna eat?
they eat the same thing my mbuna eat. petricola can actually eat just about anything... heres a link http://www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/species.php?species_id=857 under feeding it says they eat just about anything....I feed my mbuna NLS 1mm pellets exclusively. the petricola figure out its food time quickly. they really are awesome. Only thing I hate is I dont see them all the time. I only have to look for a min as they do fly around the tank, sometimes all 4 in a large group. the key is getting a good group. bad thing is they are expensive....Been thinking about setting up a tank for breeding or with one other species and a pretty open tank so I can see them more, lol...
I also have petricola in my mbuna tank (though I think they are actually lucipinn). My mbuna tried to mess with them at first. One of my mbuna even grabbed the syno but spit it out immediately and made a bunch of weird faces. The syno went on swimming like nothing had ever happened. It was either the spines or they taste bad. Since then my mbuna don't mess with them at all. The synos are also very fast and are good eaters.
I don't see mine much unless it's feeding time. Though they come out a lot more after the light goes off. It goes off at 3pm so there's still plenty of daylight and I get to see them a lot then.
Justin if you ever decide to breed them let me know. The guy I got mine from showed me his whole breeding set up, perhaps I could pass along the info.
I don't see mine much unless it's feeding time. Though they come out a lot more after the light goes off. It goes off at 3pm so there's still plenty of daylight and I get to see them a lot then.
Justin if you ever decide to breed them let me know. The guy I got mine from showed me his whole breeding set up, perhaps I could pass along the info.
