Thinking of getting into Africans

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
Chrisplosion

Chrisplosion

Mean Cat
MFK Member
Jul 10, 2010
12,160
72
0
Oregon, it's part of 'Murica!
Getting out of Flowerhorns for awhile and looking to get into something new. The one idea I have been thinking of was doing Lyonsi but might want to step away from American Cichlids with that tank. So that brought me to African Cichlids. Always been an American Cichlid kind of guy so I never kept Africans so I am not too knowledgeable on the subject, just some of the basics.

The tank I am changing over is a 55g which I might replace with either a 75g or a 90g. So with that in mind...

1. Is it possible to breed within a community without them killing off ever other member of the tank.
2. What kind of them should I look into
3. Stocking (assume for the 55g for now)
4. General water parameters
5. Anything else I should know
 
breeding and aggression depend on stock so i'll answer that first. Rift lake cichlids are divided by which lake they are found in then are broken down even further, so you first need to select a lake. I'll go more in depth with malawi cichlids since they are more common. Malawis are divided into small rock dwelling herbivorous mbuna, larger open water fish called haplochromides, and small sand or open water dwellers called aulonocara, or peacocks. in a 55 you could do smaller haps, a one or 2 harems of peacocks, or approx 3-4 different species of mbuna depending on they species you want, but it is not recommended to mix these groups as haps and peacocks are generally much less aggressive then mbuna and several haps grow larger enough to eat mbuna and peacocks.

1- if you have males and females they should breed without any coaxing and some fry may even survive to adulthood without requiring seperate care since they often can eat crushed food from birth. thoough if you do haps many of them are specialized fry hunters so less will survive. malawis are best kept in ahrems as males chase anyone that refuses to spawn. also you will likely need to overstock to provide more targets for the dominant fish and reduxe overall aggression damage to lower ranking fish

4- unless you get wild caught no issue, they prefer harder alkaline water around 8 but many are fine with dechlorinated tap water

your stock list will be much more composable if you select aulonocara, mbuna, or haps for your setup, keep in mind many haps prefer 75+ gallon tanks though
 
1. Yes.
2. Chipokae, kenyi, zebra, electric yellow, johanni, demasoni, auratus, bumblebee, and more.
3. ^^ Anything as long as their raised together young. You either overcrowd them to keep aggression low which means MORE water changes, or keep 2-3 of them in a 55 gallon.
4. Higher ph levels 7.8-8.6
5. They like LOTS OF CAVES and territories. They don't care about plants, so plants are not necessary. They can get quite aggressive with each other so keep the temp> on the low side, probably 74-78 if you are having a higher temp> they will get MUCH more aggressive. Diet consists of vegtable matter, so spurilina flakes, spurilina pellets, and NLS pellets. Stay away from heavy meaty foods such as beef heart and blood worms.

Mbuna's are the way to go. More colors IMO. Their fast too!!
 
1. Yes, I've had my P. elegans and P. interruptus breed in my community mbuna tank.
2. Depends on what type of fish you like... Haps, Peacocks, and Mbuna are all similar but very different as well. Are you looking for open water predators, sand dwellers, rock dwellers??
3. 10-12 fish should be fine in a 55 gallon for quite a while, if not for life.
4. I keep my water at 80F, 8.2 pH, and fairly hard; it comes out of the tap this way for me
5. Mbuna especially get a bad rap for being absolutely nasty. I realize all individuals are different, but I've never had a problem with aggression in my tank... at least so far haha
Feed them a high quality protein based diet, like NLS formulas, for the best growth, color and overall health.
 
If I do go the African route was probably gonna go Malawi and definitely overstock. Also would start of with smaller sizes rather than large so they would grow up together. My pH is 7.8-8.0 out of the tap.
 
then you want some of the mbuna stocks listed above i'm more of a hap /peacock keeper so can't help much there but you want a ratio of 1 male to 3-4 females depending on the species, sometimes more.
 
Chrisplosion said:
If I do go the African route was probably gonna go Malawi and definitely overstock. Also would start of with smaller sizes rather than large so they would grow up together. My pH is 7.8-8.0 out of the tap.
Click to expand...
Do you want a large, colorful stocklist, or something a little more simple; maybe one or two species for a little more "biotopic realism"??
 
I'm thinking more of a few groups of the same, rather than several different colored fish. Maybe not biotopic per say but I do want a more natural look to the tank and the fish. I know I do want a few yellow labs or other straight yellow ones.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
MonsterFishKeepers.com
Top Bottom