Mbuna Tank Cleaning Crews?

[kaianuanu]

i was wondering if i could put some type of catfish with my mbunas when i move them into a bigger tank. all of the mbunas are 2" long. i was thinking of puting a 3" silver tipped shark, 2" chocolate catfish, or a 3" pictus catfish in with them to keep the floor clean.

[Ryuu]

I like your choice, but when the mbunas get to large, they will attack the fish. if its in a 10 gallon, your choices are kind of limited. Maybe the catfish would work, I would wait for a more experienced member sorry.

[kaianuanu]

oh i'm working on clearing out the 55g(see sig) for the mbunas.

[Ryuu]

Yeah, hmmm, are you getting a bigger tank for the oscar and the other fish and eel?

[kaianuanu]

PS: how long do you think it will take for my 2" cichlids to get about 3 inches???

[Ryuu]

Um probably 1-3 months, it depends on what you feed them, I used to feed my rustys a low quality food on accident, and they hardly grew, so then I switched to Hikari, and they grew about an inch in about two months

[kaianuanu]

no the i'm selling them except the moray he's moving into a new tank i haven't bought yet. i may keep the oscar but probably not.

Ps: i'm feeding them crushed hikari cichlid gold from the oscar untill i get a mini pellet hikari.

[Ryuu]

ok, yeah a 55 is good for one oscar, so if you keep him you cant put anything else in the tank, but anyways, yeah, then they will be ok in the tank

[W_Oz]

The Chocolate and Pictus would be far better choices than the Silver Tipped (if only for maximum size considerations). Although I don't know much about the Mbunas themselves, the Pictus cat will eat anything it can get its mouth around and are quite stubborn when it comes to foods they like and "sharing" with their tank mates. I would say that so long as the Pictus or Chocolate Cats have somewhere to hide and the aquaria is of sufficient size they should get along fine. Water quality on the other hand, the Pictus Cat generally likes neutral to slightly acidic water (as does the Chocolate Cat) where as Mbunas like their water more alkaline, which the silver tipped shark is more inclined to enjoy.

All in all if you plan on housing a fish that will get quite large (24") the silver tipped shark would be your "go-to" fish for your tank. Otherwise, because of the Mbunas water requirements I'd suggest looking elsewhere.

[kaianuanu]

i'm feeding them crushed hikari cichlid gold from the oscar untill i get a mini pellet hikari. what typ of hikari do you recomend and how long do you think it will be w/ the hikari gold???

[Ryuu]

Hikari gold is just a color supplementer, and is not intended to be used as a staple. I suggest that you get Hikari cichlid staple. That includes all of the special protein needs of the oscar and such. Feed him about five of the pellets. Then give him three hikari gold ones. That will help his color.

[kaianuanu]

so what type of hikari would be best for the mbunas (growth is my main priority).

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