Looking for opinions

**IanR29** · 07-26-2012, 02:56 PM

Im currently holding a 55g that is housing 6 pseudotropheus acei, 6 labidochromis caeruLeus, 3 melanochromis johanni, 6 pseudotropheus demasoni, 3 jacobfreibergi peacocks, a sciaenochromis fryeri and a few BN plecos. There is a lot of blue in this tank and I'm looking to expand. I'm upgrading to a bigger tank. Don't know if it'll be a 75 or bigger. Just depends on what the wife lets me do. I'll be going to either davesfish.com or liverish direct.com to be purchasing 2 fryeri females and am curious on what else I should add. I've been thinking ruby reds but I'm open to suggestion as to what others favorites or a cichlid I should look out for. Like I said, I'm open minded about it so throw something at me. I sent a similar thread on a different site with not many hits so I'm hoping for a little more feed back. Thank everyone.

**Northerly** · 07-26-2012, 03:08 PM

Originally Posted by IanR29

Im currently holding a 55g that is housing 6 pseudotropheus acei, 6 labidochromis caeruLeus, 3 melanochromis johanni, 6 pseudotropheus demasoni, 3 jacobfreibergi peacocks, a sciaenochromis fryeri and a few BN plecos. There is a lot of blue in this tank and I'm looking to expand. I'm upgrading to a bigger tank. Don't know if it'll be a 75 or bigger. Just depends on what the wife lets me do. I'll be going to either davesfish.com or liverish direct.com to be purchasing 2 fryeri females and am curious on what else I should add. I've been thinking ruby reds but I'm open to suggestion as to what others favorites or a cichlid I should look out for. Like I said, I'm open minded about it so throw something at me. I sent a similar thread on a different site with not many hits so I'm hoping for a little more feed back. Thank everyone.

Well, you've got some aggressive peacocks so they might hold their own pretty well in this tank but if you're going to add more i'd say remove the johanni and definitely upgrade to a 75-100g. Ruby reds would probably do alright or maybe something like dragons blood. Also consider replacing the demasoni, even though it might not be necessary as they are on the smaller side. good luck:)

**pjaldave** · 07-26-2012, 05:38 PM

Actually, this is a lot of species for a 55G. I would max out of 6 fish of 3 species in a 55G for mbuna.

You also have demasoni and johanni in a small tank, they will be chasing each other all the time, not to mention what damage they can do to each other.

What I will do is return the johanni and demasoni (even you have a 75G) and you can add blue zebra or blue socolofi for blues instead to reduce aggression issues.

BTW, 55G and 75G have the same length so it's not really gonna help much with that upgrade. So unless you rehome the others, i am not gonna advice on getting any more.

**IanR29** · 07-26-2012, 08:05 PM

I have had this community for about a year now. The Demasoni leave each other alone and are fully grown. The only aggression I've it is a sub dom male acei that like to pick on a Jacobs peacock but as soon as the peacock turns around the acei flees.

I should've explained my plans more earlier. Once I find what it is that my wife is going to let me buy, I'll put the female and male fryeri in the 55g, I have a 40 g breeder ready to go that I'm going to put the Demasoni in. A 14 and 10g fry and breeder tanks. For a while I wanted a 92 bow front corner tank, but I don't think it's the best bet for cichlids. If and when I inspect the flooring and she allows a 6' tank then thats what I'll get. Sorry for lack of details.

**pjaldave** · 07-26-2012, 11:50 PM

If you only have the setup for about a year, then you're cichlids are not "fully" grown yet. It usually takes more than a year to get them fully grown.

I still stand by what i said that the 55G is seriously overstocked right now.\

Not too sure if a 40G breeder is a good home for demasoni. I will leave them in the 55G and add around 6 more to spread out the aggression and put the fryeri in the 40G breeder.

**IanR29** · 07-27-2012, 02:13 AM

Ill agree there may be 1 too many species of mbuna in there Thats the thing tho, the demasoni are about 3.5 inches each. They dont get much bigger than that from my experience. They, to the best of my knowledge, haven't chased a fly nor shown any aggression what so ever. Its been said that the yare little buggers amongst themselves but a generally pretty docile toward toehr mbuna species. They get interupted when they start doing the dance by a curious acei. The only aggression i have/had was the male lab that would pick on 1 other yellow. That was 4 months ago.

Ill even agree that there may be 1 too many species of mbuna in there, but Every piece of material that i have researched (other than the mbuna sticky in the beginning) said that in a 55, to disperse aggression, you need to overstock the tank with 20-25. A 75, 25-35 depending on how big the cichlid gets. And yes this was for mbunas. I get the same advise from another forum sight that i go to. I am now confused.

These so called "terrors" (not by you but in general) i do believe are fully grown. Acei are 5.5 inches as are the labs (labs may be a bit smaller). Fryeri is at least 6. The only 1 that has some growing to do is 1 johanni and 1 peacock.

Either way this will be going into a bigger tank and not staying in the 55. The reason i was going to leave the Fryeri in there is that they will be breeding and I don't know if this will bring out the aggression in him. Wouldn't him and 2 females be too crowded in a 40g breeder?

**pjaldave** · 07-27-2012, 06:31 PM

Yes, you do overstock the mbuna tank to spread out aggression, but not by number of species. You overstock by number of the same specie, and IMO, i will only put 3 species in a 55G.

I am not really sure about the fryeri in the 55 or the 40B, but i think it needs way more females than just 2 if you're gonna separate them for breeding.

**kaybee** · 07-29-2012, 11:34 PM

Originally Posted by IanR29

... the demasoni are about 3.5 inches each...The Demasoni leave each other alone and are fully grown...

You must have some very tolerant specimens. Male's max out at 4" and will reach optimal aggressive potential at about 3-4years of age.

**IanR29** · 07-30-2012, 02:08 AM

My set up in the 55 is sand sub and lava rock piles on each end of the tank. Many hiding spots with a piece of drift wood in the middle of each pile. The Demasoni all went their own way and have their rock they hover around.

And thank you for the info on them. I'm sure my set up will be completely different with in the next year or so. Aiming for a 125 hap tank. Mr. Dave from davesfish talked me into some red empresses. Only going to do 1m/4f. I'm also going to take out the johanni or atleast all of of them but the 1 Dom male.

Also counting them today I noticed I was wrong on my count. It's not much of a difference but it's 5 acei, 5 demasonis, and 5 labs with 1 of them being a lab/red zebra hybrid. He's more orange than yellow with feignt horizontal stripes and half of a black line on his dorsal fin. He's always hiding but I caught a pretty good glimpse of him.