New African cichlid tank decorated and stocked!!

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
punman said:
Looks great, nice photography.
It has been my observation in 16 years of keeping African cichlids that is often easier keeping three species with 10 of each than 10 species with three of each. I am not saying you need 30 fish or only three species; just making a generalization that it is often the combinations of fish that causes problems. It is easier to find three species that get along, rather than ten.
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This is my final species count if you're interested.
5 demasoni
7 haplochromis tomato
6 hongi
4 yellow labs
1 male sunshine peacock
4 snow whites
2 red zebras
2 yellow tail acei
2 aurutus
2 venustus

So far the fish have been mild. I've been rearranging the rock work with water changes to avoid getting territorial. I'm a little concerned about the sheer size of the venustus cichlids I've never kept them, we shall see I guess. So far so good. Almost a month in. Some more pictures of fish and tank and rearranged rock scape.

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Nice tank. Ime most Victorians hold their own with most Malawis and sometimes it's the Victorians that cause problems, depends on the particular mix and individuals. Venustus like to eat small fish, typically, so you might need to adjust eventually, and some of the other species may or may not work long term imo.

Any mix like that is subject to needing some tinkering as time passes, whether adjusting species, removing the occasional rowdy individual, etc. Just a fact of life dealing with African cichlids ime. :)
 
neutrino said:
Nice tank. Ime most Victorians hold their own with most Malawis and sometimes it's the Victorians that cause problems, depends on the particular mix and individuals. Venustus like to eat small fish, typically, so you might need to adjust eventually, and some of the other species may or may not work long term imo.

Any mix like that is subject to needing some tinkering as time passes, whether adjusting species, removing the occasional rowdy individual, etc. Just a fact of life dealing with African cichlids ime. :)
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Which other species were you thinking could be problematic?
 
Yes I think the tomatoes will not show their best color. I would also expect a peacock (with demasoni and hongi) to show poor color eventually.
 
DJRansome said:
Yes I think the tomatoes will not show their best color. I would also expect a peacock (with demasoni and hongi) to show poor color eventually.
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Yeah i really love a fully colored tomato hopefully one of the males is tough as **** and colors up just to say eff you to those blue striped *******s
 
Imo a few of those you have can be a handful. Auratus, then demasoni at the top of the list, maybe. I've seen mixed results with demasoni, some of them are psychos, but auratus are consistently nasty from what I've seen (and experienced). Your bigger than average mbuna tank and plenty of rocks and caves to divvy up territories helps, but I learned early on to be prepared to tinker when it comes to Malawi tanks.
 
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Kashif314 said:
Stunning looking tank. Great job. I did some research for demosanis when wanted to get them and I found out people didn't have any luck even with like 10 of them. You have a huge tank. This fish looks very beautiful so maybe get 20 of them. In my opinion demosani is the best looking cichlid ever after frontosa. They really look like some saltwater fish like clowns.
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I've had my Demasoni for 4 months now and they're getting along fine. I just have to change the rockscape now and then, but that's about it.



Here's a pic without the rockscape (took them out for cleaning)

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