My New Simple 55gallons

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i was thinkin a cichlid tank i reckon it would look nice with a about 30 yellow labs only

Thanks for the suggestion Beechey! Yea, I have decided to keep some yellow labs n I also found out sombody selling about 14 yellow labs for $20 which I think is very cheap but they r all around 1 inches, I still one question about their compatibality, cuz 14 will look too less for my tank, so what r the best tankmate for them? I was thinking about some firemouth cichlids but I don't know if they will get along with them

And also, how do u guys think about plants? Will plants do okay with them? I just pick up some unwanted rock to make some place for them to hide but it still looks kind of empty without the plants...

If you get all 14 labs (labidochromis caeruleus) you'll be pretty much fully stocked. It may look empty when they're small, but they get to around 5 inches. If you only get around 6 of them, (either see if the seller will give you less, or resell/home the extras) you could get another species. Pseudotropheus demasoni look really well with labs. Mbuna (rock-dwelling african cichlids) should only be kept with other mbuna due to aggression and dietary needs. I'd suggest reading some of the stickys in the Old World Cichlid section, and this link has some great articles as well.

Mbuna will eat most plants and their need for a higher PH makes plants somewhat difficult. However, hardy plants should be ok, and IME labs aren't as big of plant eaters as most of the other mbuna.

Almost forgot, someone wrote a great post on plants that work with mbuna. [URL="http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=277841"]http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=277841[/URL]

Any other questions, feel free to ask. -Dawn