Stocking options 75 g malawi

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GermanDude

GermanDude

Plecostomus
MFK Member
Dec 30, 2014
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Hi!

I got a new 75 gallon tank, 20 inches deep and can't decide what to stock.
I am new to rift lake cichlids.

option one, all male tank, four of each:

dragon blood,
OB peacock,
electric blue hap,
yellow lab

Thinking of a minimalistic setup, so no territorial issues occur, small stones, maybe some java fern.
But is a four foot tank really sufficient?
These fish get rather big and swim a lot, don't they?
Plus hybrids are quite notorious for becoming nasty.
What do you think?

option two, mbunas:

3 m/ 7 f powder blue cichlids,
3 m/ 7 f yellow labs,

some Synodontis catfish.

Set up would be different, lots of caves and so on...

Might I get away with putting in one dragon blood ( at least partly mbuna), or will he just wipe out the other males for owning their females?

Thanks in advance!
 
If you go the all male route you would only want one of each type. Anyone that resembles each other will fight. Even the o.b. and dragonblood could view each other as competition. I had an ob in the past that constantly chased the dragonblood, I have a different dragonblood and ob now and they completely ignore each other.

The second option would be a nice looking tank, the single dragonblood may even work.
 
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james99 said:
If you go the all male route you would only want one of each type. Anyone that resembles each other will fight. Even the o.b. and dragonblood could view each other as competition. I had an ob in the past that constantly chased the dragonblood, I have a different dragonblood and ob now and they completely ignore each other.

The second option would be a nice looking tank, the single dragonblood may even work.
Click to expand...

+1. If you go all male, it’s a matter of trial and error. And again, just because you have a certain fish (example: Red empress) that’s a jerk, it doesn’t mean that the next Red Empress will be. Don’t get me wrong, some fish are naturally more aggressive than others, all I’m getting at, is that some have different personalities within the same species. When I say trial and error, be ready to have a place to go with bullies. Whether it’s another tank or a LFS that’s willing to work with you while trying to make peace in an all male tank.
 
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Thank you so much, I rely on your experience.
I read some people succeeded keeping multiple same "species" males, because their aggression spread on several individuals.
And even subdominant fish would still have had the chance of showing nice colors.
But that seems to work in tanks at least 6 ft long,
sometimes.
So I will set up a nice yellow and blue mbuna tank.
Have a nice sunday!
 
Is an eheim canister filter 2026 appropiate, if combined with a large spongefilter?
An empty one has a flow rate of 280 gallons/ hour and a media volume of just 1.3 gallons.
But I already own one.
Thinking about buying a new one, doubling both numbers, but just adding a sponge would be much cheaper.
What do you think about it?
 
I would go with another canister. I have a fx6 and a aquaclear 110 on my all male 75 gallon. You want to turn your water over atleast 6 times a hour. Not sure how many fish u plan on having in your tank but I have 16 in my 75 growout so I need something like a fx6.
 
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Ok, I will buy anothe one.
FX 6 has a great mechanichal filtration, but the biological one does not convince me.
Think I gonna buy a canister filter that works good at my 100 gallon tank, with severum and some non cichlids.
Its flowrate is at 530 g/h but biological filtration volume is 2.6 gallon.
Thats twice the amount of the FX 6.
Do you think it is sufficient for 20 mbunas and 5 petricola catfish?
Just that filter, nothing else.
 
Fx6 has 925 gph from pump before media. One of the biggest on the market. As for bio media. Don't understand what u mean your not convinced on there bio. U can't put any kind of media u want anywhere u want in the six trays. Personal I love my fx6. I'm setting up a 150 gallon now which I'm going to put 2 fx6 on it for my larger haps. One fx6 would be fine e for your setup I always like to have a backup filter on every tank whether it be a large job or another canister incase something happens to one or when it's time to clean filter toucan stagger the dates you clean your filters so you don't run the risk of accidentally killing all your bb.
 
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