Stocking?

[P.A.NativesBPM]

So I have some stocking questions.
Below is my planned stock for a 55 gallon african tank. I've heard that peacocks won't work with the mbuna, but just wanted to make sure here. If the peacocks will work, that's great. If they won't, please post some suggestions as to what to replace them with. I was thinking a couple more julidochromis if they will work, as I really love the look of them, and will probably go for male and a few female. Any sexing tips? And now, the stock list. Tell me what you think

White Calvus
Black Calvus
Lwanda Peacock
German Red Peacock
Midnight Peacock
Lions Cove Cichlid
Jalo Reef Afra
White Blaze Afra
Julidochromis Transcriptus
2 yellow labs
1 Rusty Cichlid


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[jrthor_85]

are you planning to buy adults or juvies and grow em? The calvus grow very slowly, and unless you can find them already decently sized your other fish will quickly outgrow them which could lead to aggression/predation issues.

I don't know much about mbuna other than labs so I won't comment on the list as a whole, but have you considered any syno cats to help police the crap on the bottom of the tank? Synodontis multipunctatus & S. petricola are two that would fit in with your list.

 

[ShadowBass]

Your stock list is kind of all over the place.

You've got several tanganyikans that I actually wouldn't recommend with mbunas, and especially peacocks, because they'll be outcompeted and probably injured. Especially the calvuses.

I'd either go with tanganyikans, or mbunas, or peacocks, not a mix of the three.

Either do the Julidochromis and calvuses and do a full on tanganyikan tank

Or do a strictly mbuna tank with the afras, labs, rusty cichlid, and lions cove cichlid.

Or do peacocks.

Either way, you need to take the tanganyikans - calvus and julidochromis - out of the equation from the rest. They just don't get big and aggressive enough to compete.
Peacocks and mbunas can work sometimes, but neither is compatible with the tanganyikans you listed.

 

[P.A.NativesBPM]

Well, obviously not what I wanted to hear but I'm thinking that the tanganyikans would make a cool tank. A colony of julidochromis would be sweet. And I really want to try calvus, so I'll go with that! Thanks for all the help shadowbass. Any other tanganyikans that would go with those guys mentioned? And how should the julidochromis an calvus be stocked?


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[jrthor_85]

I would disagree with ShadowBass on the calvus/peacock issue, only so much as you have to find specimens that are already large enough not to be beaten. I have a 2 white and 1 black calvus that I bought at 1" and housed him with a bunch of unsexable juvie malawi haps and peacocks, all maybe around 1.5". 5 months later, I have several 3-5" peacocks, haps, one black calvus who made the cut and is almost 2.5" (incredibly fast growth for them) and 1 white calvus who hasn't grown at all, and one white calvus who got punked so hard it got infection and died. This is a 125gal tank with lots of large granite rocks piled about for hiding places.

What you want is possible, don't get totally down about what will and won't work with each other. You can make anything work. I do keep an EBJD in the same peacock/hap tank as a concession to my wife...

 

[ShadowBass]

5 months later, I have several 3-5" peacocks, haps, one black calvus who made the cut and is almost 2.5" (incredibly fast growth for them) and 1 white calvus who hasn't grown at all, and one white calvus who got punked so hard it got infection and died.

That proves my point more than anything. You have one calvus that happened to have the personality to survive, for now. One that hasn't grown, most likely because he either can't compete adequately for food, or isn't comfortable competing with the more aggressive fish, and one that's dead. And that's in a 125g with plenty of room. The OP has a 55g.
And 2.5" in 5 months isn't incredibly fast growth. It's standard growth with good water quality and feeding unless you started with fry. They average just over a year to get to 2" from hatch.
The black calvuses and comps I had several years ago had the same growth in 3 months that you saw in 5, doing large biweekly water changes and feeding hikari carnivore pellet and hbh. The whites may show slightly less growth, but should still grow some within 5 months, and should moved to a seperate tank in the case that it hasn't. Without any growth, you can count this fish as another likely long term fatality. A 1 out of 3 survival rate isn't what I'd call successful.

And another issue is dietary requirements. Mbunas are algaevores mainly, whereas calvuses are carnivores, feeding on fish fry in the wild. Feeding them the proper diet individually while mixed together would be difficult, since mbunas will immediately snatch whatever is put in the tank. The calvus would not have the proper diet if you mainly feed the veggie based food for mbunas, and mbunas would not have the proper diet feeding mainly meat based foods for the calvus. Mbunas can in fact develop intestinal and other health issues on high meat protein foods, and it should be given sparingly. Calvuses won't show proper growth and may become nutritionally deficient with a veggie based diet.

I don't advise people based on BEST case scenario (you happened to get peaceful enough mbunas and/or peacocks, and aggressive calvuses), but the most likely scenario. Someone doesn't necessarily have to take my advice, and may try doing it different with mixed success, it's their money and fish to play with after all, but I'm giving the best advice I know of given the most realistic scenario.

 

[P.A.NativesBPM]

Well I thank you for that shadowbass. Looks like I might be investing in some 3-4 inch calvus to start out with. What should I expect to pay for them? And I'll be shooting you a PM soon so watch out for that!



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[jrthor_85]

That proves my point more than anything. You have one calvus that happened to have the personality to survive, for now. One that hasn't grown, most likely because he either can't compete adequately for food, or isn't comfortable competing with the more aggressive fish, and one that's dead. And that's in a 125g with plenty of room. The OP has a 55g.
And 2.5" in 5 months isn't incredibly fast growth. It's standard growth with good water quality and feeding unless you started with fry. They average just over a year to get to 2" from hatch.
The black calvuses and comps I had several years ago had the same growth in 3 months that you saw in 5, doing large biweekly water changes and feeding hikari carnivore pellet and hbh. The whites may show slightly less growth, but should still grow some within 5 months, and should moved to a seperate tank in the case that it hasn't. Without any growth, you can count this fish as another likely long term fatality. A 1 out of 3 survival rate isn't what I'd call successful.

I said that to illustrate my point as to how unsuccessful growing out calvus and others can be in such an environment, not that I did something right. However the OP could always get his hands on 3 or 4" fish and put with peacocks or maybe some mbuna (which I did say I'm not too familiar with) and have a reasonable chance of success.

 

[ricomambo]

If it helps in any way, I have a mixed of Malawi and Tanganyikan cichlids in my tank, two 2 inch calvus and a few 3 to 6 inch comps with large haps, mbunas, peacocks and frontosas (8 to 12 inches). Been together for years with no issues so far. Probably have close to 40 cichlids in the tank but I do provide a lot of hiding places for the smaller cichlids and feed every day so no one go hungry...


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[Ash]

I am not going through all this but I ll give my .02 I don't do mixed tanks anymore (other than one hap I had no where to put so I decided to temp. put it in a frontosa tank which actually worked to my advantage, so I left it be). I have tried so many different mixed tanks and all I did was end up with beat up and dead fish.

Based on my own experience tangs and malawis dont mix well. I keep only tang tanks now (minus the one hap mentioned above). All the mixed tanks I tried just never worked out and got to the point where keeping them got unenjoyable. I started doing lake only and species only tanks and found it was much more peacful, no real issues and it made it more enjoyable again. Always remember when getting advice on a forum that what works for one person will not always work for another. I would start off with the two species of fish and see hwo it goes then worry about adding other stuff. If you add other stuff to the tank I would avoid other tangs that like to dwell in rocks, julies tend to be territorial so you are better off getting different fish that will inhabit different sections of the tank.