Stocking question on JD's/African Cichlids/etc.

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cgcaver

Medium Fish
#1
Jan 2, 2005
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Some of you may have read my post about my plans to redo my 55g. Well at the moment, I'm having a hard time deciding between stocking it with 2 Jack Dempseys, various African cichlid species, or possibly even something else. Here are my questions:

1) I've heard you can put 10-12 Africans in a 55g... but yet I see that most can grow to 4"+... so how does that work? Do they have a small bioload compared to other fish or something? Basically, if I decide to stock Africans (yellow labs, electric blues, demasoni, etc) , how many can I put in a 55g? If I have a lot of filtration, can I put more? I currently have an AC500 and was thinking of possibly adding a Fluval204 or some kinda canister.

2) Are there any other fish you guys think I may wanna consider stocking? I'm mainly going for color. Also, can anyone recommend any red, green, etc. colored cichlids? Was hoping to find some other colors to go with the blue/yellow.
 

C

Cichlid-Man

MFT Staff
#2
Jul 9, 2003
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The reason so many africans work together in a smaller space is because their aggression is spread throughout the group. Not laying the harm on just a one fish. I also find africans are a lot cleaner than SA/CAs. Not as much poo, therefore cleaner.

I like to personally stock 12-15 in a 55gal tank, of the various Mbuna.

There has always been a question of overfiltering. I don't see any reason you can't add more. But this will not take away the should be weekly water changes. I've heard a HOB + Canister is an awesome mix. AC500 i know is a good strong filter.

I don't know of any green africans right off hand. A lot of blues, yellows, blacks...etc. You might consider some of the peacocks or haps from malawi. They get bigger than Mbuna but some may be a bit more peacful. I find it better to keep 1male 2-3 female when keepin haps and peacocks.
 

fishtankmaster5

fishtankmaster5

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#5
Dec 11, 2004
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i have 14 africans they all are doing great, i got 2 hap., 2 peacocks, 2 tanganyika, (1 calvus and 1 duboisi), and 8 mbuna, and not one fish is the same and they all get along great and there is very little if not any hostility, accept around feeding time but thats it, and they are in a 55 gal, with a penguin 350 and 330, and the nitrate never goes above 20, and the best food that i found out on here is called new life spetrum, its great, and about the fish, check out my forums and see the fish i got, i think you might like some of them, (but if you want to see an awesome fish get c-man to show you his red empress, it is really sweet) *celebrate
 

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cgcaver

Medium Fish
#7
Jan 2, 2005
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Nice fish indeed FTM5!

OK, I defintely wanna do a Malawi Mbuna tank. So far, I'm looking at:

3X DEMAISONI
3X YELLOW LAB
3X COBALT BLUE (or possibly Acei, needed another "blue" fish)
3X RED ZEBRA


This seems like it would give me a very nice display of colors. However, I do have 2 questions:

1) What bottom feeders would be best in this tank? And how many of them?

2) Would ghost shrimp be able to survive in this tank? I've heard they are fantastic scavengers and they add a lot to a tank's ecosystem.


As usual, all help is sincerely appreciated!
 

fishtankmaster5

fishtankmaster5

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#8
Dec 11, 2004
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i had to take my common pleco out because he was getting torn up, but i find that they dont mind fiddle crabs, and they are very good scavengers and they stay small(get female fiddle crabs because the male dont work nearly as hard because they have that big claw, but the females use both claws to scavenge), but if you get them do what you would do to put in a new fish(move some rocks, turn off lights, etc.) and they like air so to easily solve that problem what i did was have a plant that goes out of the water, so they can climb on it

as for the ghost shrimp, i bought some thinken they could scavenge in those hard to reach places *thumbsups , i was wrong, as soon as they hit the water they were mauled, and later i found out that some people feed them to cichlids once a month because they love to eat them i wrote a forum about this, here it is-
http://www.myfishtank.net/forum/showthread.php?t=26942

i hope i helped *PEACE!*
 

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