How many africans ?
- Thread starter ramman
- Start date
I'd really need to know exact species before I could tell you how many would be okay. For example, in a 30gal tank, 6 yellow labs would be okay, but I would never keep 6 Kenyi in a tank that size.
I have around 26 wild caughts in a 3ft tank. Have plenty of rocks for the fish to hide in. Put in together so no one kind managed to rule. Have bred very succesfully with three species, of 12, and have just had the fourth species breed. Do regular 20% water changes, four to five days. These fish live rather peacefully together. Chap I bought them from has just been to the lake and he tells that the species are like that there. Photo's show the many species together. With more fish you must be prepared to do water changes more frequently.
ramman said:
You can keep a lot more than that. 20 wouldn't be pushing it as long as the filtration can handle it. In nature, their population density is amazing. You can cram a lot of fish together and the more the better. That is if you're talking about mbuna. If you're talking about tanganyikan cichlids the rules change a bit. But for your zebras kenyis melanochromis, labidos and the such, cram em in there. They're all pretty aggressive species and the more tank mate you have the more the aggression is spread out. Also, NEVER EVER EVER EVER add just one at a time. The new fish will be the lowest on the totem pole by every fish and be killed in days. 10 years ago when i started keeping rift lake cichlids I learned this the hard way with some expensive and cool fish. And it's always the cheap ones that kill the expensive ones.
