Labs and Pilots?

[VirgoWolf]

I need you african cichlid people to tell me if it's a doable situation...

These guys are either in the tank now or will be very soon:
4 Yellow Labs
1 Syno
1 Rainbow Shark (my mom insists he stays in this tank)

It's a 70gal tank with the footprint of a 55gal.

I some nice Pseudotropheus polits on AquaBid and I was wondering how well they will do with the labs?

 

[FreddyJ]

check out this nice description on wetpetz

polit
It looks like they are from the same geographical region as Yellow Labs so in the wild they probably come across one another, but I guess that doesn't say much about compatibility in an aquarium.

I think the number of polits might play a role in how well it works out...do you know yet how many you might get?

 

[Katie217]

yeah you could add in polits, im just not sure on numbers. Sinister Kisses owns polits so she'd be best to ask

 

[Cichlid-Man]

yeah you could add in polits, im just not sure on numbers. Sinister Kisses owns polits so she'd be best to ask

Fine then katie, i see how it is. jk lol, Sinister is a very valuable resource to ask, very good at stocking numbers.

polits and labs should be fine together. I'd probably look at like 6-8ish polits with 1-2 males if possible. There are some nice ones on aquabid though, looking at them now.

 

[SinisterKisses]

Lol I'm sensing some hosility there, Matt

Polits would be fine with labs. Buy them as juvies and have lots of rockwork, and you might get away with having two males in the same tank as Matt suggested. Be prepared though to remove extra males if it becomes apparent that the dominant male wants to be the only boy Happens all the time with polits, its difficult to keep more than one male together in a tank sometimes. 6-8 polits are a good number, just remember that the females are a little dull compared to other mbuna - as long as you're okay with that, the labs are bright enough to balance things out anyway

 

[Katie217]

Matts just jealous Sinister

But I agree with what you said, starting off with them all as juvies is the best bet, so you can pick out the maturing fish as needed.

 

[VirgoWolf]

OK, problem being that the labs are adults. The auction is for 6 pilots at 1", no idea on the sex... Should I request 2/4 or 1/5 and see if they are willing to work that out for me? Will I have to keep them seperate untill the pilots get some size? Do they grow relatively fast? (not much room for more growout tanks)

Also, if I did 4 labs, 6 pilots, 1 syno, and 1 rainbow shark, Would you say that's about fully stocked? Or could I add maybe one or two nice centerpiece fish? If so, what would you suggest?

This is technically my mom's tank, but I do everything from stocking to decorating to maintaining, she just feeds and enjoys them. I just want to make this appealing for her and I think she'd like the pilots, and I woulden't be hurt if I had to remove a male from her tank and plop him in a different tank with a female and see what happens either.

 

[SinisterKisses]

Lol okay, first things first...its pOlits, not pIlots (sorry, had to!)

You can not sex 1" polits, so asking them to send you a certain ratio is pointless. And yes, if the labs are full grown adults, you'll have to house the polits in a growout tank until they're big enough (at least 2") that the labs won't think of them as bite-sized snacks. You'll be able to add more fish, you just have to be selective on which fish you add as well.

 

[VirgoWolf]

LOL Sorry, apparently I am dislexic today... or maybe it's that I have been talking about a pilot alot lately, LOL.

I kinda assumed they were too small to be sexed... that sucks though... I think we might just pass on these guys for now based on that and having to keep them seperate, really don't have room for another growout tank.

Sucks though, the strain is really nice, but I think we'll wait untill we're moved before adding another tank. Thanks though!