what non cichlid fish are good tankmates for mbuna? e.g. plecos, tetras, lungfish, lobsters, bichirs etc.
Mbuna tankmates?
- Thread starter Christophercanary
- Start date
No not for the 29 gal, just gathering information as I prefer larger tanks and am trying to develop a vision for a larger mbuna tank. I have a few spare tanks laying around a 90g and a 40 long, I got a cousin who also has like 10 spare 40g breeders. And I'm currently using a 75 as a growout for dovii lol but I'd like to get into 6 foot tanks sooner than later. Not sure if im gonna keep the dovii but the only reason I got it was because its supposedly a "Red gene" dovii but im hoping its a female so I can get a 125+ for it some day but if its a male I probably wont keep it because I don't really want to buy a 250 gallon tank for the one fish.
Anyway thanks,
C.
Synodontus catfish share waters with Rift Lake cichlids, as do certain Mormyrids, if you are looking to be geographically correct.
I wouldn't do bichirs unless all of your mbunas are fully sized. Some medium to large barbs would work.
- also kinda off of the "non-cichlid" thing, try tropheus if it's 75+, they'll go w mbuna.
- also kinda off of the "non-cichlid" thing, try tropheus if it's 75+, they'll go w mbuna.
Synodontus catfish share waters with Rift Lake cichlids, as do certain Mormyrids, if you are looking to be geographically correct.
Thanks, gorgous catfish. You know I used to want to do biotope only tanks and be geographically correct but I'm actually hoping to do something different -- most of you probably aren't gonna like this, you die hard African fans and sa/ca fans but I'm really a Ca/sa cichlid guy but I've taken an interest in mbuna cichlids. I don't like how any of the other African cichlids are shaped aside from maybe the venestus and livingstoni but I love the mbunas body shape and colors! So I'm only interested in doing mbunas from the African selection but what you guys aren't gonna like is that I'm gonna attempt to do a mbuna / sa/ca community is my ultimate vision, if it doesn't work out I'll just settle for an awesome mbuna tank with like a school of congo tetras or some other top swimming fish that would work out (noncichlid).
A cool idea would be to do all male mbuna and all female ca/sa like female trimac, female red terror, salvini, convicts, etc. in like a 100 - 200 gallon tank or even just some Oscars in a mbuna tank, I know the water parameters thing but I figure that all of these fish have been captive bred for so long that they can adapt in any water...
My love is in ca/sa cichlids -- trimac cichlid always wanted one when i was 13, got one 6 years ago when I was 23 and it was a beast, im raising up my first dovii now hoping its female or else I probably wont keep it if its male, german blue rams became my favorite at one time, I love pikes, I love just about every ca/sa cichlid aside from the few that I dont like the shapes of lol but as beautiful as they are, they just do not rival the colors of mbunas!
I want to try to socially engineer a tank with mbunas that dart in and out of the rocks and a beautiful ca/sa cichlid(s) that is an open water swimmer.
Go easy on me
Thanks,
C.
Know that mbuna will utilize all levels of the tank so any top swimmers will not have that portion of the tank to themselves.
That's awesome, I can't wait to have a tank one day that has full grown mbunas utilizing all of the tank. I wonder how some 5-6" mbuna will do with say some 8-10" female red devils or other comparable cichlids where the females are aggressive enough to hang but get to the 8-10" and are just too big to be killed by the mbuna and won't eat the mbuna.
And Dj, what is your 75 gal like with the demasoni and maingano? Got any pictures of your tank you can share here?
Thanks
C.
No pics. The tank works well. I have been keeping demasoni for 14 years and am stubborn enough to do what it takes no matter what.