So I inherited a 55 gallon tank and I want to fill it with colorful fish. I like Cichlids... a high school friend of mine has a tank, but I don't want to have to worry about babies (fry). I live three hours away from a LFS so there are limited resources. I read a bit about getting a tank of all male cichlids and since I spent time in Tanzania last year, I want to use African cichlids. I've looked on-line a bit and have seen that it's possible to buy males. I know the males shouldn't look alike or be the same. I guess I'm looking for advice and limits of how many I can put into the tank. Thanks for the help!
all male african tank... guidance???
- Thread starter susikay
- Start date
Nothing will stop the fish from fighting. The best way to prevent serious injury to the fish would be to overstock the tank and so spread out the aggression among many different fish, and also create structure in the tank providing many hiding spots. Creating a rock wall out of "Holey Rock" (limestone I think?) is one way.
In a 55gal, I would guess starting with 12-16 fish in the 3" or smaller range. Maybe even more. They will grow and you will lose some but it should even itself out with regular water changes and vigorous filtration. You may also want to avoid fish from the 'malawi hap' category as many of them will outgrow that tank. Most mbuna or peacocks you should be able to get away with, though some mbuna can get quite large.
One other thing I use in my tank to control aggression is temperature. Even such a small difference as raising the temp from 78 to 80 I see a large increase in aggression.
In a 55gal, I would guess starting with 12-16 fish in the 3" or smaller range. Maybe even more. They will grow and you will lose some but it should even itself out with regular water changes and vigorous filtration. You may also want to avoid fish from the 'malawi hap' category as many of them will outgrow that tank. Most mbuna or peacocks you should be able to get away with, though some mbuna can get quite large.
One other thing I use in my tank to control aggression is temperature. Even such a small difference as raising the temp from 78 to 80 I see a large increase in aggression.
Its my understanding that the standerd rule of thumb is 1inch per gallon of fish. While setting up a tank I commonly use calmer mubunas (trios) and peacocks (1 per color morph). Like the acei, yellow labs, white labs, and then pick male peacocks out. Stay away from the more aggressive mubunas Johnnies, demasoni and kenyi. You will find the lithobate male will problably be the biggest fish in the tank but adding one male and then mubunas and maybe another center piece hap or peacock would be great. Keep in mind the max size the fish will grow as you don't want anything over 5-6 inchs as its really to big to be in a 55. I always stock the tank based on max size and then add 10% more expecting a few to die off for a number of reasons... so if your following my guide line your starting stock should be 15ish fish give or take one. 4 trios and 3 peacocks/hap or 3 trios and 5 peacocks/haps.
on anther note always try to pick a selection that complements each other.. If you get cobalt's then stay away from an electric blue ahli.. the bright intense blue from the alhi will make your powder blue cobalt looks bad. Or a malrie peack with electric yellows... another reason not to double up on the color combo like that is lack of diversity in the tank if all you see is yellow and blue it looks a little redundant. so a nice lithobate (blue, green, yellow/red) pending what type you got, would look very good with an electric blue ahli iceberg or a ivory moloto, and then find a nice red peacock (dragon blood, german red, super red empress, rubescens, orange lemon jake)
on anther note always try to pick a selection that complements each other.. If you get cobalt's then stay away from an electric blue ahli.. the bright intense blue from the alhi will make your powder blue cobalt looks bad. Or a malrie peack with electric yellows... another reason not to double up on the color combo like that is lack of diversity in the tank if all you see is yellow and blue it looks a little redundant. so a nice lithobate (blue, green, yellow/red) pending what type you got, would look very good with an electric blue ahli iceberg or a ivory moloto, and then find a nice red peacock (dragon blood, german red, super red empress, rubescens, orange lemon jake)
I know you are looking for lots of color, but one other suggestion I have is to consider some of the african catfish to help stir/clean up the bottom of the tank. Synodontis multipunctatus & Syno. petricola both get some neat bronze coloration and bright white/black contrast on their fins. I personally love S. petricola for the white edging around the fins and when kept in groups of 5+ they can have great personality.