What would you keep with Demasoni?

[blue2fyre]

I'm having a really tough time with this. I have a few yellow tailed acei and I'm looking for a third species for my tank. I'm hoping to add another dwarf mbuna because the acei tend to get large and I think it would be better to stay away from any other species that gets large.

I'm having a tough time because I have heard so many conflicting things about demasoni. First I heard that hey will not tolerate any blue or barred fish, then I heard that in a large group they mainly focus on each other and ignore the other fish (I will be 15 to my tank ).

Before anyone mentions it, I don't like yellow labs :silly:. I had a coupld in my tank and while ago and just didn't find them interesting. I was thinking about rusties but was worried they might be too passive.

My local fish store (a really good one mind you), suggested an afra would keep the demasoni in line. Which would be fine as long as they left my acei alone.

Any suggestions are welcome

 

[nick_flano22]

I'm not sure about what u should do but, i had a Cynotilapia afra (cobue) it was a very nice fish, it wasn't 2 aggressive, it mainly kept 2 itself I'm not sure what there like in a group though, good luck with your selection =)

 

[Pittbull]

neolamprologus brichardi would probably work, and yes you are so right on hearing that about the demasoni they dont tolerate other species looking like them and with a large group they will focus on each other unless the parents are guarding fry..

 

[blue2fyre]

Aren't those from Lake Tanganyika?

Since most of the tanks inhabitants are mbuna from lake malawi I would really like to stick with more mbuna. Thanks for the suggestion

I've been looking around and I really like these guys:

http://www.cichlid-forum.com/profiles/species.php?id=801

The females are a lovely orange yellow color but I think the males would look too much like the demasoni

 

[kay-bee]

Demasoni's are compatible with practically all mbuna species which do not resemble them. Their compatibility with similarly colored or patterned mbunas will depend on how aggressive the other species is.

I had a full grown male demasoni pursue a labidochromis sp. mbamba every chance it got (the yellow top mbamba, however, loses its striped patterned when placed in a sub-dominant role, so the presence of the demasoni surpressed the full beauty of this fish, forcing it to become solid purple). The yellow top mbamba (seen here):

..isn't much more aggressive than a yellow lab, so that put it at a serious disadvantage with the demasoni. Not a good tank mate for demasoni's.

The metriaclima sp. msobo you're interested in isn't similar enough...

...to 'summon the wrath' of the demasoni. Fortunately, even if it did, the male msobo is a much more aggressive fish. I keep a couple of msobo's in a tank populated predominantly with pseudotropheus demasoni, here's a photo of a male and female msobo with demasoni's:

...the msobo is further away from the camera, but it's actually twice the size of a demasoni, more dominant and more aggressive (in my opinion). The msobo actually ruled this demasoni tank, until I relocated my metriaclima sp. zebra 'chilumba' in the tank, another blue/black fish:

This zebra is the most aggressive fish in the tank (even larger than the msobo, getting upwards of 7" or 8") and has no problem with the demasoni's. They do well to stay out of his way. In this particular tank, the demasoni's bicker with each other, give the male msobo wide berth, and get 'run off' by the zebra. I also keep some demasoni's with some smaller zebra chilumba's in another tank and they pretty much ignore each other.

So, in my experience, demasoni's can be kept with blue/black fish as long as those fish are more aggressive than the demasoni's. I wouldn't recommend keeping a similar-looking mbuna with lower aggression with demasoni's.

 

[blue2fyre]

Thank you so much!

I think when i order my demasoni I will order some Msobos as well. Thank you for sharing your experiences

 

[Pittbull]

cool i didnt know if you were open for different species or not but yeah if you are wanting to stay all mbuna what kay-bee said, also we all have heard those stories were hobbyist had a tank full of demasoni's and other mbunas being peacefull and or also that they had a horrible experience with them i guess you will never know unless you try and if i had that decision i would go zebra's with the demasoni..