Mbuna for 40G?

[alexanian]

So I have finally decided to try african cichlids! I have a 40 G long tank and my LFS has M. estherae zebras. i was thinking of getting around 10, and i'm also thinking of getting some L. caeruleus later on, if I manage to find any.
Does it sound like a good plan? Any other ideas or suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

 

[Mokujin22]

Those two are known to interbreed. Also, red zebras are pretty rough and will outgrow a 40.

 

[alexanian]

The ones I'm getting are juvies around 2", but how many grown Zebras i should aim for?

 

[wantokeeptrout]

the best ratio is 1 male to 3 females in a large enough tank, but because it's such a small tank i'd get extra females to spread the aggression given that there will be less space to hide from the dominant male. for a 40 breeder and a mbuna the size of zebreas i'd keep it species only

 

[COG Commando]

I'd go for 5-10 for a start, but they will need a larger tank as they get larger.

 

[alexanian]

Well I was thinking about getting 1 male and all the rest females, or would 2 males to 8 females be better? I wouldn't mind even going all females since there is orange, yellowish and albino available.

 

[wantokeeptrout]

the ratio i mentioned is the general rule for large setups that have multiple species. in a 40 breeder you will only have one male one way or another.

 

[jah29]

40g is too small for Red Zebras, which will get to a big 5-6inch.. the Yellow Labs are a little smaller and are a lot more peaceful.. you can try it, but make sure you only have 1 male Red Zebra, which can be tricky to identify especially if they are pretty small from where ever your getting them... Ideally a 55g would suffice for a colony of Red Zebra's and Yellow Labs, with only 1 male from each species

 

[COG Commando]

40g is too small for Red Zebras, which will get to a big 5-6inch.. the Yellow Labs are a little smaller and are a lot more peaceful.. you can try it, but make sure you only have 1 male Red Zebra, which can be tricky to identify especially if they are pretty small from where ever your getting them... Ideally a 55g would suffice for a colony of Red Zebra's and Yellow Labs, with only 1 male from each species

He said it's a 40G long so the tank will have almost the same footprint as a 55G, but by no means should it be anything but a growout tank. L. caeruleus and M. estherae don't typically get any bigger than one another (I've seen males of both species pushing 7"). I'd look into getting a 75G tank (minimum) for when the fish are adults as they can get pretty beefy and aggressive.

 

[alexanian]

Well there is no L. caeruleus available at the moment and since you all think the tank is too small and I might have lots of aggresion issues even with the M. estherae alone as a species tank I'm really thinking about abandoning the whole idea.