Hey everyone, I am new here on monsterfishkeepers, although I have lurked here on and off for years. But anyway, I thought I'd share my mbuna stocking list to see if anyone has any feedback. I have kept most types of fish over the years, mostly tropical, planted aquariums, but I also have saltwater and used to keep a cold water native species tank with bullhead and sunfish. Anyway, the one type of fish I always avoided was african cichlids, mainly because I always heard how incredibly aggressive they are, and secondly because whenever I would go to research them, trying to find information about the myriad of species, from all the different lake, etc. was extremely confusing. But anyway, recently I was perusing my local Petsmart (which around here at least has quite decent fish, and some great sales. Petco is another story...) and I saw they were having a sale on african cichlids, including a tank of tiny "mixed african cichlids", for $2.50, some of which were incredibly beautiful. I resisted getting any on the spot, but I went home spent a few hours doing research, decided to give them a try, and then went back and purchased some. I had a general idea what species I was purchasing, but only 100 percent ID-ed them with a lot more research when I got home. My thought was that if I had any really terribly aggressive species I can take them in to my great LFS, get in store credit and they will sell them to someone with a more suitable situation.
So anyway, this is what I have:
1 Metriaclima estherae, Red Zebra Cichlid. I am pretty sure I have a female, because even though she is small (all the fish are about 1in) she doesn't even have a hint of egg spots yet, and most of the other RZ in the tank had some egg spots.
1 Metriaclima lombardoi, Kenyi Cichlid, female.
1 Pseudotropheus demasoni, Desmasoni Cichlid.
1 Pseudotropheus cyaneorhabdos, Maingano Cichlid, formerly in the Melanochromis family.
1 Pseudotropheus socolofi, Powder Blue Cichlid.
1 Cynotilapia afra, Afra Cichlid.
4 Labidochromis caeruleu, Yellow Lab. I believe I have 1 Male, 2 female, 1 unknown.
Right now they are all temporarily in a 20g, with some white clouds. I think I will be putting them in a 55g, after we move in 2 months. All the fish on the list are classified by cichlid-forum.com as "mildly aggressive" save the first three fish, which are labeled "aggressive" or "highly aggressive". I am not too concerned about the Demasoni because a lot of stuff I read online has said they are not really that aggressive on the mbuna scale. I am hoping because the first two are single specimens and are females they won't be as aggressive as their species is as a whole. Is that likely? Some of the articles I read suggested if you only keep one of a species they will not get as aggressive. But if they do get too aggressive as they get older I will take the Kenyi and RZ into my LFS, because I don't want them messing up the tank dynamic. Does this look like it could be a good combination of mbuna? As I said I am new to africans specifically, but fairly experienced with fish and aquariums in general, including some more aggressive species, such as damsels (SW fish).
Finally, does anyone have any suggestions for dither fish? I have not been able to find much concrete information on that. I would prefer african species, so I am leaning toward congo tetras, but I would be open to other fish too. Personally I always have dither fish, even with the most aggressive fish because I think it makes them less aggressive.
Also, I plan to put either a smallish bichir species (like a sengal), or syndotis catfish species in as a bottom feeder.
Feel free to comment about anything, I'm just looking for some feedback to make sure I'm not totally off track. Thanks!
So anyway, this is what I have:
1 Metriaclima estherae, Red Zebra Cichlid. I am pretty sure I have a female, because even though she is small (all the fish are about 1in) she doesn't even have a hint of egg spots yet, and most of the other RZ in the tank had some egg spots.
1 Metriaclima lombardoi, Kenyi Cichlid, female.
1 Pseudotropheus demasoni, Desmasoni Cichlid.
1 Pseudotropheus cyaneorhabdos, Maingano Cichlid, formerly in the Melanochromis family.
1 Pseudotropheus socolofi, Powder Blue Cichlid.
1 Cynotilapia afra, Afra Cichlid.
4 Labidochromis caeruleu, Yellow Lab. I believe I have 1 Male, 2 female, 1 unknown.
Right now they are all temporarily in a 20g, with some white clouds. I think I will be putting them in a 55g, after we move in 2 months. All the fish on the list are classified by cichlid-forum.com as "mildly aggressive" save the first three fish, which are labeled "aggressive" or "highly aggressive". I am not too concerned about the Demasoni because a lot of stuff I read online has said they are not really that aggressive on the mbuna scale. I am hoping because the first two are single specimens and are females they won't be as aggressive as their species is as a whole. Is that likely? Some of the articles I read suggested if you only keep one of a species they will not get as aggressive. But if they do get too aggressive as they get older I will take the Kenyi and RZ into my LFS, because I don't want them messing up the tank dynamic. Does this look like it could be a good combination of mbuna? As I said I am new to africans specifically, but fairly experienced with fish and aquariums in general, including some more aggressive species, such as damsels (SW fish).
Finally, does anyone have any suggestions for dither fish? I have not been able to find much concrete information on that. I would prefer african species, so I am leaning toward congo tetras, but I would be open to other fish too. Personally I always have dither fish, even with the most aggressive fish because I think it makes them less aggressive.
Also, I plan to put either a smallish bichir species (like a sengal), or syndotis catfish species in as a bottom feeder.
Feel free to comment about anything, I'm just looking for some feedback to make sure I'm not totally off track. Thanks!
