Cichlid Community Tank Question

[RobMiller5]

Hey yas iam going to be making a an all cichlid aquarium, but i was wondering, will all my fish that i put in colour up? or will only the dominant male show his colours. The fish i'm putting in are:

Pseudotropheus saulosi x1 m
Pseudotropheus elongatus x1 m
Pseudotropheus sp. "BB Chilumba x1m
Labidochromis caeruleus x1m
Maylandia emmiltos 1m x 1f

What do you guys rekon?

 

[danger bunny]

for the mast part only the mare dominat fish are going to really colour and with most cichlids it is a good idea to keep more females than males in a tank it heilp to keep the fighting down(how ever cool it is). fighting may lead to ugly beet up fish or fish death from stress
but each species acts diffrent and i've never had any of those except the yellows who are pretty peaceful as far as african cichlids go an yellow all colour up

 

[Cichlid-Man]

What size tank is it?

A lot of males so you may get some scuffles. Especially with Pseudotropheus elongatus, never kept the species myself but heard it was highly aggressive.

As for coloring up, debatable. If all the males are intent on taking over the dominant male of the tank roll then they should color up. But if one male comes out of the gate and beats the crap out of the others, then i doubt they would show full color.

 

[RobMiller5]

yeh its a pretty big tank 50 -60 galllon, from my experience with cichlids, i think only the alpha male with colour up.

 

[Acei]

Honestly, youll have much better luck if you triple the amount of cichlids you're putting in that tank. With mbuna, you will almost always have better results by overloading the tank. With the setup you've proposed, a handful of those fish are gonna get the heck beat out of them. When you overstock the tank it is easy for the less dominant fish to lose the aggressor in the pack. Since the aggression gets spread around, more of the fish will color up.

I've been keeping africans for over ten years now and this method has always given me the best results. Best of luck...

 

[RobMiller5]

wowzor's acei! more equals less aggression hey yeh i have seen some very small tanks majorly overstocked with mbuna and they all seem to be quite well behaved. So, okay i'll overload the tank with mbuna and see how it goes. thanks for the advice