Help Design a Tank w/ Yellow Labs

[Deleted User]

Okay, after my husband and I get the dwarf cichlid tank going, the next one we want to do is one with Yellow Labs.

Can you all offer guidance?

I'm thinking it will be a 55 gallon tank.

Is this acceptable?

What other types of fish could we put in with yellow labs?

How many yellow labs should we get?

Can we put clown loach in with them, and if so, how many of those should we include?

Thanks!!!

[Lab_Rat]

55g is a great size for a mbuna tank. How many species are you interested in keeping? A very popular combination is yellow labs and demasoni. It's a nice yellow/blue/black combination.

If you're interested in that I would go with 6 yellow labs and 10 demasoni. Look through the mbuna profiles and see what you have available then we can narrow down stocking plans. There are many mbuna to choose from. Ones to avoid due to excessive aggression are the auratus, chipokae, and kenyi. Crabo can be pretty aggressive too. Of course if those are the fish you want we can figure out a more aggressive stocking plan.

Clown loaches really need 125g and are a schooling fish. In addition, I would not put them with mbuna for fear of them getting killed. You can look into synodontis instead. They are from the rift lakes and tend to be a good tankmate for mbuna.

[Deleted User]

That sounds like an exciting combination! Thank you for the advice. I will look up info on the demasoni, but I was hoping for a yellow and blue combo in the tank so that sounds good so far thumbs2:

[Lab_Rat]

Here's a picture of a demasoni from cichlid-forum.com

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Not my picture, sure wish it was! It's a gorgeous little fish.

[sailor]

Another nice blue and black fish that get along well with yellow labs are electric blue maingano. The nice thing about the maingano is the male and female have the same colouring. I have these 2 as well as red fire zebras in a 90 gal tank. No aggression issues. Just make sure that you try and get 1 male to 4 female sex ratios. It's a lot easier on the females.

here is a link to what they look [Only Registered Users Can See Links.]

[Mith]

Okay, after my husband and I get the dwarf cichlid tank going, the next one we want to do is one with Yellow Labs.

Can you all offer guidance?

I'm thinking it will be a 55 gallon tank.

Is this acceptable?

What other types of fish could we put in with yellow labs?

How many yellow labs should we get?

Can we put clown loach in with them, and if so, how many of those should we include?

Thanks!!!


Just so you know Jill, Clown Loaches get HUGE! Also, cichlids are a bit cranky, and one way to dispence this behavior is to have a LOT of them. In my 125g I probably have 50 fish! Just keep a lot of rocks in the tank for them to hide in.

Side note: a lot of cichlid tanks have a wall of rocks stacked at the rear of the tank. I had that, but eventually moved all the rocks everywhere in the tank. Seems the hiding areas are more spread out.

Anyway, yellow labs are so pretty. I had a male and female but she finally died. At one point she was holding but I also have a lot of Calvus (thin fish that can get into small areas where fry could hide) and what ever's born in the tank I'm sure get eaten by them LOL

I'll expect some pics!!!!

[kaybee]

Yellow labs are compatible in most african cichlid set up. Since they're typically not as aggressive as most other mbuna's you may want to have them outnumber the other species if going for a two species set up (except if you're wanting demasoni's, then go with what lab_rat suggested for that particular combo).

There are also a number of solid blue mbuna's that would work with yellow labs.

The Pseudotropheus socolofi ('Powder Blue') is solid blue and has black fin markings similar to those of yellow labs and is an option as well:

Yellow Lab
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Powder Blue
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[dane]

woud the yellow lab and powder blue mbunas mix with my current 2 firemouths 2 convicts,1 bumblebee cichlid ,1 taiwanese reef cichlid ,and a jewel cichlid id like to get the yellow lab and the powder blue if they would work any ideas there beautiful fish