BTW from what I can tell in the pics, your Y.labs look like they are pretty good quality blood line. Y.Labs are so common that they get so diluted with breeding & hybrid that a lot of them don't have bright color or they have beards and such. Yours look to be pretty darn nice and clean though.
Thanks Steve. I'm thinking maybe another Y Lab and maybe 2 or three peacocks to cap it off. How would that work long term in a 55? I have a aquaclear 150. Next step will be my first canister.
I think that would work okay in a long term tank IMO. Just get rid of the Kenyi man, I know it sucks but that's in your best interests trust me. If you do a 55 with a few Y.labs and some pecocks, you're gonna be sooooo much happier trust me. You'll enjoy your tank rather than dealing with aggression and dead fish.
Now talking filters...you'll get many opinions on that, that's a touchy subject lol. So I'll say this. On a 55g. I would say to turn that over at least 3-4 times per hour. The filter you are talking about if memory serves correct, fits about a 30g tank best. I think it is rated a 150 but actually a AC30 in normal terms, which is a filter for a smaller tank.
Canisters are good, I love my fx5's. You don't need to go to a canister though. You can save some cash. Look for a AC110, or if you want to go canister, low dollar but good is this....look on ebay for this http://www.ebay.com/itm/SUNSUN-370-...hash=item48a0bddd3e:m:mRH1jM1r5TquUhGMYIUz27w
Thats actually a really good canister filter that does not cost much. Many of the guys in my club own that filter and love it.
Anyway...just tryin to help ya man. When I got back into cichlids some years ago I had some mix that was not good too. I had a 55g with some bad mix of haps & mbuna because I did not know better at the time. Had some that killed each other, took me years to see what worked with what. And I felt bad when I had to trade/give away fish that I owned It's all part of the game though. We have all dealt with trading in fish and dealing with the wrong mix and sorting it out to what works. Just part of being a cichlid owner.
Now talking filters...you'll get many opinions on that, that's a touchy subject lol. So I'll say this. On a 55g. I would say to turn that over at least 3-4 times per hour. The filter you are talking about if memory serves correct, fits about a 30g tank best. I think it is rated a 150 but actually a AC30 in normal terms, which is a filter for a smaller tank.
Canisters are good, I love my fx5's. You don't need to go to a canister though. You can save some cash. Look for a AC110, or if you want to go canister, low dollar but good is this....look on ebay for this http://www.ebay.com/itm/SUNSUN-370-...hash=item48a0bddd3e:m:mRH1jM1r5TquUhGMYIUz27w
Thats actually a really good canister filter that does not cost much. Many of the guys in my club own that filter and love it.
Anyway...just tryin to help ya man. When I got back into cichlids some years ago I had some mix that was not good too. I had a 55g with some bad mix of haps & mbuna because I did not know better at the time. Had some that killed each other, took me years to see what worked with what. And I felt bad when I had to trade/give away fish that I owned It's all part of the game though. We have all dealt with trading in fish and dealing with the wrong mix and sorting it out to what works. Just part of being a cichlid owner.
Pretty hard to tell from the pics, and I agree that there are a LOT of hybrids floating around, but characteristics such as "black beards" vertical barring, white bellies, etc, does not necessarily equate to poor genetics. In fact these are traits commonly seen in wild L. caeruleus. (Lion's Cove variants) I have seen wild yellow labs with these traits, fresh out of Lake Malawi and collected by a friend of mine. I also owned and raised many F1's from his breeding groups that he returned from Africa with.
Personally I would go with either smaller, less aggressive species of mbuna, or a group of Aulonocara, and not mix Aulonocara and mbuna, in a 55 gallon tank. BTW - when I had a 55 mbuna tank years ago, I ran two AC 500's on the tank. (now called AC 110 I believe) Lots of current, but majority of mbuna live in the surf zone and have no trouble with that kind of turnover. Even small fry from spawning's survived in that tank, and that current.
I agree that pool filter sand is the way to go. I have a 125 with a bunch of Mbuna, some Synodontis, rocks, and sand. The Mbuna constantly move around the sand...they're always up to something. Makes it interesting.
