Happy Healthy Mbuna Tank?

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GermanRam

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Feb 5, 2009
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East Texas
Starting a Mbuna aquarium. I have a cycled 55 gal. I will be doing a lot of rock work. I'm using two filters.#1 is a Whisper 60 #2 is a Emperor bio wheel 280. One hang on heater that is for the 55 gal. It's in the middle and I have two smaller heaters, one at each end as a backup. I will use sand as a substrate. I have a long background in the aquarium hobby but not with this size tank or these fish.

I would like to know. Do you see any potential problems with the fish I have chosen on my wish list. If you have had experience with this type Cichlid, I would love to hear about it.
Do you think that this will be to many fish for a 55 even with two filters and weakly water changes of 25%? What would you do differant and why?

One male each type.
Pseudotropheus sp.5" Blue Dolphin (Ndonga)6",Labidochromis sp. Hongi Island6", Labeotropheus trewarasae ob7", Pseudotropheus sp. red zebra (cherry red)5", Metriaclima Estherae (ob)5", Pseudo--tropheus sp ( elongatus chewere)6", metriaclima sp. Msobo Magunga Deep5.5", Pseudotropheus flavus-A 5"

Others in tank. 1 Golden algie eatter 4", 3 Synodontis Petricola catfish (Cuckoo catfish) 4.5

This is max size at aduilt. 12 Fish total and 68" inches total for all fish.
I will be buying them at around 2" in size.
I know that the 1 inch per gal. don't work on thick, messey fish. Nore does it apply when you start beafing up your filter system. What do you think of this as a workable long term setup?:nilly:
 
Come On...... I know some one on here has had Mbuna before. Please tell me what you think....Thanks Jay
 
Are you looking to do an all male tank?

The Blue dolphin, elongatus, and flavus are not going to be happy with each other's Vertical black stripes. Flavus can be really aggressive so you know but I think most of the others you picked can hold their own. The key is to pick fish that don't look alike, this will cut down on the aggression. If you only have one of each it may or may not work. Mbuna can be tricky like that.

I'd also skip the golden algae eater, they are known for sucking the slim coat off of fish. If you want a good algae eater stick with a bristlenose pleco. The petricola should be fine but if you bump up the numbers they will be out and about more. I have 4 and they hide a lot.
 
That all sounds great. I have one fish in the tank now (the Golden Algae-eater) I can't really place him in any of my other tanks (29g, 16g, 5g) all but the 16g are community and the 16 has a Green Spotted Puffer. I guess I will have to keep a close eye on him in the Cichlid tank. I have read in several places that they do well with aggressive Cichlids so that's why I got him and the fact that my tank was getting very green with just feeder guppies in there to cycle the tank.

I have read about the look alike in a Cichlid tank could bring on problems but had forgotten about it till you said that, THANKS I will look at some other choices that I had passed on and make that change.

About the numbers, too much? add more? how many do you have in your 55 and how does our filter systems compaire? Thanks for hanging in there with me. It's nice to talk to someone with like tank setups. Jay
 
I changed out the elongatus, and flavus and replaced them with Meluaclima sp "zebra blue" (blueberry) 6.75"..............and a Psendolropheus Socolofi (albino) on my wish list.
 
Mbuna lovers, ....Talk to me!
 
Its really hard to say.Youre doing everything right,starting them young,trying to pick different types.But an all male tank is a gamble.Much less of a gamble than a random mix of males and females.But no guarantee its gonna work.
Sounds like a good looking mix to me though.
 
I have Mbuna...Red top zebras,,Some aurora,some afra lions...A boatload of aratus..and a clan of tropheus red moliros( I know mixing lakes isn't common practice but I really dig the reds).....Mbuna are truly rewarding and relatively easy...Keep good balance of males and females....trial and error..... and dedication
GL
 
I am hoping to make this a all male tank.
 
If you want an all male tank it is better to go with a peacock and hap tank. The mbunas are more aggressive and more likely to kill off other males. Look on you tube for some all male peacock tanks. They can work and look very good too.
 
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