D
Nice try but if I had 2 tanks it would either be 1 Mbuna and 1 Peacocks or 1 Mbuna and my original plan for this tank with a Nicaraguan Cichlid and Rainbow Fish.See....you have stock for the two aquariums already sorted out in your head....you NEED to get the two aquariums to make your dreams come alive @Wills
Don't fight your dreams...chase them...capture them.....life is too short to regret not making dreams into reality later
If you can fit two.....get the racking and get 6....floor to ceiling on two walls (furniture can be put in the garage....giant beanbags on the floor to sit and gaze at the beautiful fishies)Nice try but if I had 2 tanks it would either be 1 Mbuna and 1 Peacocks or 1 Mbuna and my original plan for this tank with a Nicaraguan Cichlid and Rainbow Fish.
Brilliant haha! It is such a hard call with this side of the hobby, its so muddy and so many people don't take into considerations I would argue most of us on this forum do with our tanks.You're working hard. I once saw a person trying to buy mbunas while a clerk kept saying the mix would lead to carnage. The customer was determined. It became clear the fish were being chosen because they matched the curtains in the person's house.
This is why you need to live in the garage and turn the house over to aquariums @WillsBrilliant haha! It is such a hard call with this side of the hobby, its so muddy and so many people don't take into considerations I would argue most of us on this forum do with our tanks.
I'm having a hard time deciding if I agree with the ethics of the concept of an all male tank, I think I do but... you see so many people that do peacocks and then just throw random stuff in (I'm repeating myself now) but just trying to work out how to decide if I'm on board with stuff or not.
With the Mbuna, there are a bunch of amazing fish out there but finding the right ones without dull females, overly aggressive males, that don't clash and finally that you get excited about looking after is tough.
Scaping for mbuna is fun, but everytime you remove a female either to collect fry or to strip fry so she doesn't starved to death, you have to rescape. Every new fish added, new scape.
Second idea is
Metriaclima Fainzilberi Maison Reef
Chindongo Socolofi or Metriaclima Callainos Chitande
Metriaclima sp. Msobo "Magunga"
Labidichromis sp. Hongi Sweden Super Red
Which is probably a bit more aggressive
not sure if keeping more than one Metriaclima species is a good idea
Metriaclima sp. Msobo which is quite a similar fish to the Saulosi but a bit tougher
I'm hoping to have a group of small Tanganyikan Synodontis in there too to help with fry control
My goodness!
Thats interesting... I thought the Hongi and Maison Reef were super aggressive? I've seen videos of both 'acting up' to say the least but really really like the Maison Reef, but not at the exclusion of some other species.You don't have any of the really big hitters on there, and that looks like a nice line up to me!
Definitely, I think I've got 4 Metraclimba species in my top 10 at the moment... I also need to understand more about how yellow/orange females interact with each other? Eg the L.Trewavasae and C.Saulosi together? Or the M.Msobo or the M.Estherae... though 2 of those 4 species get OB females that might help that situation? What do you think?In general, more closely related species with be more aggressive to each other, and species that look more similar
Thats really interesting! Thank you! I knew they got big but being quite slender I thought might be ok, I also didnt think they were that aggressive?? I was hoping just a small group of these if I did them so they stood out a bit more?Ah yes, Labeotropheus trewavasae! A lovely species with some very impressive coloration. Indeed IME, it's the best of what I think of as the "color shifters". They seem to change colors so quickly based on mood, threat, dominance interaction, etc. The males in particular can get larger - I've seen one that was maybe 16-17cm. But they are lovely! For me a 75gal is not where I would stick this species. Once the males get large, I would worry about it becoming the Thunderdome. But you may well have success where I would struggle in a 75.
I want to try and stay on the calmer side of things but don't want to be confined to just the 'common' species like Saulosi, still like to find unusual options. I have some great Rift Lake places near me so want to take advantage of that if I can but sometimes some fish (and this is across the hobby) are just not kept because its hard!To my eye, your Labidochromis sp. "Hongi" can be just as nice looking. They stay a bit smaller. And they will certainly be less of a handful to manage. But that's just to my taste. I have some friends who really like the most intense species. They like the energy. And I get it. It's the same reason why tetras just won't do it for me. Rift lake cichlids can offer far more behavioral excitement, IMO. Some I have just decided are perhaps too exciting for me.
Seems we are a bit light on Malawi keepers on the forum atm.
I have some great Rift Lake places near me so want to take advantage of that if I can
That is very true, all the YouTube channels I can find with really detailed stuff is at least 8/9 years old and abandoned channels. There are one or two but debatable ways of keeping them, mixing Peacocks and Mbuna etc but it seems to work for them, but perhaps they havent come across Malawi bloat yet... I can imagine if one or two bigger channels really focused on it they would take off which is interesting. Especially Mbuna with the hardscaping side of things and also the 'hunt' of finding the right species etc - though I suppose they are harder to fit into the time frames people use for content.Well, rift lake cichlids just aren't that hot right now. The buzz words seem to be "community", "planted", and "nano". Like all things, these trends ebb and flow. I think too, because there are still active forums specific to cichlids, some of those folks just interact there. I'm fortunate to be near enough (6.5 hr drive) to get to interact with the Greater Chicago Cichlid Association, which is a large and thriving group!
You should definitely do that! I'm of the opinion that the variability we see, even within species, from different locations in these fish may well also be present in behavioral traits as well. No reason we shouldn't think that is the case a priori anyhow. I've found that good fish stores, that know their cichlids can tell me "this batch of XXX are weirdly aggressive" or the opposite, and they are usually right. They see far more fish than any hobbyist will, and they get good at assessing that, even at the juvenile stages.
You had a number of questions about aggressivity of the fish you are looking at. So I waste a bunch of your time, I'll say my view might be a bit skewed. I've kept a few, and I associate with folks who keep things like Tropheus colonies from Tanganyika. One of my friends had a female that continually spit eggs, so he stripped her. Just 3 days after the fry hatched for him they were already murdering each other in a featureless container. They still had their yolks, mind you! And those weren't even considered the aggressive kind. I also had designs at one point on setting up a tank of Petrochromis. After speaking with some keepers, I came to realize now matter how much you try to spin it, those fish are absolute psychopaths!
I suppose my point is that it's all a bit what you get used to. Some mbuna are super docile, saulosi, acei, labs, etc. Most are mid ground and just need a bit of managing. The larger mid level ones become more challenging too, I suppose. The most challenging ones in my experience get named things like Tropheops, or Melanochromis. If you stay away from those two groups you should be okay in general. The thing to remember is that losses happen with these fish. Someone earlier in this thread mentioned they were concerned about cichlid keepers' regard for the welfare of their captives. The thing is to keep fish like this you must inure yourself, to at least some degree, to their nature. They themselves create their very own brutal existence. We mitigate, but can only do so much.
If you have those good LFS, run your lists by them and see what they think based on the fish that have been coming through. It's a fortunate resource you have.