I’m BACK! And I forgot a ton…

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
I would skip the plecos. I do like 20 mbuna in a 75G as this has been the correct level of overstocking, assuming you choose small, peaceful mbuna like yellow labs, rusties and acei. I would do mbuna only....skip haps, peacocks, other continents and plecos.

Four species with 1m:4f of each has good odds of success. Or you could do 1m:19f of a single species. or 1m:9f of two species.

Shoot for GPH of 10X so you should be OK with the FX4 unless you want reduncancy.
 
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DJRansome said:
I would skip the plecos. I do like 20 mbuna in a 75G as this has been the correct level of overstocking, assuming you choose small, peaceful mbuna like yellow labs, rusties and acei. I would do mbuna only....skip haps, peacocks, other continents and plecos.

Four species with 1m:4f of each has good odds of success. Or you could do 1m:19f of a single species. or 1m:9f of two species.

Shoot for GPH of 10X so you should be OK with the FX4 unless you want reduncancy.
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Ok. Can I ask why you would skip the plecos? Won’t there be a lot of algae growth then?
 
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There won't be any green algae. Mbuna will eat everything green.

There are several varieties of Synodontis Catfish, native to the rift lakes, that work well in Africa Cichlid community tanks.
 
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Plecos don't always survive and they don't really clean algae very well. Keep the algae down by feeding less and leaving the lights off. Even with plecos and mbuna eating the algae you will still have to scrape the glass, so no real benefit.
 
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DJRansome said:
Keep the algae down by feeding less and leaving the lights off. Even with plecos and mbuna eating the algae you will still have to scrape the glass, so no real benefit.
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Agreed. Remember plecos add to the bioload, leave lots of dark visible turds everywhere, and once they figure out your feeding routine they get very lazy at removing algae.
In addition to reduced feeding & less light, water changes are your friend keep nitrates (algae food) as low as possible.
I recommend checking your source water for nitrates, then planning your water change volume & frequency around +5 max of nitrate over your source water on water change day 🤙🏼
I’m a huge labidichromis fan. I have had single species tanks w mbamba, hongi and chisumulae. All very colorful and active species, and great to watch in a social breeder group.
 
danotaylor said:
Agreed. Remember plecos add to the bioload, leave lots of dark visible turds everywhere, and once they figure out your feeding routine they get very lazy at removing algae.
In addition to reduced feeding & less light, water changes are your friend keep nitrates (algae food) as low as possible.
I recommend checking your source water for nitrates, then planning your water change volume & frequency around +5 max of nitrate over your source water on water change day 🤙🏼
I’m a huge labidichromis fan. I have had single species tanks w mbamba, hongi and chisumulae. All very colorful and active species, and great to watch in a social breeder group.
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Can I see a picture of yours tank?
 
I don’t keep Malawi mbuna anymore. The lab tanks i had were when I lived in Australia years ago, so no pics, sorry.
I keep a tropheus group, a “mbuna type” fish from Tanganyika. Very similar temperament and feeding habits/requirements.
This is the tropheus red bishop, a line bred troph from a naturally occurring mutation of species black “Karamba”.

 
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Beautiful tank!
 
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