Okay well thats good, what you can do it you need help is see if you can get a picture of the fish (if you have a camera or phone camera?) and post them in this forum and we can help you ID them. If not maybe try and find a google picture and post that up for an ID or something. The Mix tanks usually have mbuna - depending on the tank mates there are some you may want to avoid. Good Luck!
Educating MFK on Africans!
- Thread starter Ash
- Start date
Well I'm not planning on switching just yet, like i said i know little about them so i'm getting to know more about them before i do the switch. Anyways when I decide to do it u and the people here will be the first to know since i'll be asking for opinions 
)
)Okay the shell dwellers seem to be gaining some popularity now so here is one:
Scientific Name: Neolamprologus multifasciatus
Common Name: Multies
General background: These fish are found in Lake Tanganyika among the leftover shells from snails that live in the lake. They generally live in shallower areas of the lake. The males breed with multiple females with in their territory.
Aggression level: Not very aggressive but have no problem trying to hold their own or keep other out of their territories, in my experience.
Tank Set-up: A 10gal tank should be fine for shell dwellers, though 20 gal make awesome shell dweller tanks. I have seen some nice 10gal setups with small breeding colonies of multies. Sand with a lot of shells is best. These fish love to make home out of shells and during breeding these shells are very useful. Shells are also a great hiding area.
pH Range: ~8.0 I have kept mine in 7.8 and they have done fine.
Temp: ~78 degrees F, many keep their tanks at 80 degrees F. I keep all of my tanks in the 76-78 range depending on depth found and have had no issues.
Feeding: A protein diet should be fine. NLS pellets (or other similar pellets), shrimp pellets, brine shrimp or flakes should be fine. I feed mine shrimp pellets and NLS pellets and they do fine.
Breeding: Generally these guys should not be to hard to breed. If you provide enough females per male (5 or so females per male) and have a lot of shells and good water quality they should breed for you. The males will breed with multiple females. The fry will hide in your shells and swim out on occasion. If you want to separate fry, I suggest picking things that you can pull out of the tank easily and can dump or transport to a fry tank - you will never catch them all they are fast and don't travel far from their hiding spots (its a real pain!).
Maybe not the best pic but the only one I got on the computer atm. One of my smaller ones:
Scientific Name: Neolamprologus multifasciatus
Common Name: Multies
General background: These fish are found in Lake Tanganyika among the leftover shells from snails that live in the lake. They generally live in shallower areas of the lake. The males breed with multiple females with in their territory.
Aggression level: Not very aggressive but have no problem trying to hold their own or keep other out of their territories, in my experience.
Tank Set-up: A 10gal tank should be fine for shell dwellers, though 20 gal make awesome shell dweller tanks. I have seen some nice 10gal setups with small breeding colonies of multies. Sand with a lot of shells is best. These fish love to make home out of shells and during breeding these shells are very useful. Shells are also a great hiding area.
pH Range: ~8.0 I have kept mine in 7.8 and they have done fine.
Temp: ~78 degrees F, many keep their tanks at 80 degrees F. I keep all of my tanks in the 76-78 range depending on depth found and have had no issues.
Feeding: A protein diet should be fine. NLS pellets (or other similar pellets), shrimp pellets, brine shrimp or flakes should be fine. I feed mine shrimp pellets and NLS pellets and they do fine.
Breeding: Generally these guys should not be to hard to breed. If you provide enough females per male (5 or so females per male) and have a lot of shells and good water quality they should breed for you. The males will breed with multiple females. The fry will hide in your shells and swim out on occasion. If you want to separate fry, I suggest picking things that you can pull out of the tank easily and can dump or transport to a fry tank - you will never catch them all they are fast and don't travel far from their hiding spots (its a real pain!).
Maybe not the best pic but the only one I got on the computer atm. One of my smaller ones:
Scientific Name: Pseudotropheus saulosi
Common Name: Not known? refer to scientific name
General Background: This fish is found in the rocky habitat of Lake Malawi. They live in somewhat deep areas of the lake off of the rocks. They are herbivores and graze on algae. The females are yellow in color and males who have a territory are blue with black stripes, otherwise they can remain yellow. This is one of the smaller species of mbuna found in Lake Malawi.
Aggression level: Aggressive
Size: ~3-4 inch range
Tank Set-Up: Though they are smaller then other mbuna a tank size of 55gals or larger is still recommended. These fish can be territorial so the larger the space they have the better. You will want plenty of rocks for territory and hiding. Sand would be a preferable substrate (or color quartz). If you have a mix of males and females I would have multiple females per male.
pH range: I usually recommend ~7.8 - 8.0
Temp: ~78-80
Feeding: These fish are herbivores and should be fed a spirulina diet (they are algae eaters not protein pellet eaters). You can always drop in an appropriate vegetable for them to nibble on (lettuce for example).
Breeding: If the fish is going to breed the male will generally do a "dance" for the female. The male will find a spot on the sand bottom (usually a pit that he digs) and he will breed with the female here. Once breeding is completed the female will hold the eggs in her mouth which is about a 2 weeks time period. She will then release the fry.
Picture: (please refer to link) - Images Here
Common Name: Not known? refer to scientific name
General Background: This fish is found in the rocky habitat of Lake Malawi. They live in somewhat deep areas of the lake off of the rocks. They are herbivores and graze on algae. The females are yellow in color and males who have a territory are blue with black stripes, otherwise they can remain yellow. This is one of the smaller species of mbuna found in Lake Malawi.
Aggression level: Aggressive
Size: ~3-4 inch range
Tank Set-Up: Though they are smaller then other mbuna a tank size of 55gals or larger is still recommended. These fish can be territorial so the larger the space they have the better. You will want plenty of rocks for territory and hiding. Sand would be a preferable substrate (or color quartz). If you have a mix of males and females I would have multiple females per male.
pH range: I usually recommend ~7.8 - 8.0
Temp: ~78-80
Feeding: These fish are herbivores and should be fed a spirulina diet (they are algae eaters not protein pellet eaters). You can always drop in an appropriate vegetable for them to nibble on (lettuce for example).
Breeding: If the fish is going to breed the male will generally do a "dance" for the female. The male will find a spot on the sand bottom (usually a pit that he digs) and he will breed with the female here. Once breeding is completed the female will hold the eggs in her mouth which is about a 2 weeks time period. She will then release the fry.
Picture: (please refer to link) - Images Here
This is a great thread. I want to start one documenting the fish I breed, see if I can inform MFK to what they are missing out on.
I'm really surprised their isn't more MFK love for the larger africans, the trout cichlids, frontosa, etc. I mean there are people who like them but seems that more people are definitely south american focused.
I'm really surprised their isn't more MFK love for the larger africans, the trout cichlids, frontosa, etc. I mean there are people who like them but seems that more people are definitely south american focused.
I went through 9 pages and got a headache... But in this case I guess it's a good thing! I you haven't done it yet put up some info on tropheus moorii and all the geographical variants, or direct me to the page it's on!
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