overstocking? understocking?

charliecanskatesome

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i have a 30 gallon long aquarium and it currently has 1 female auratus and a male and female lombardoi. How many more (if any) african cichlids can i keep in the tank without it being overstocked? Maybe one or two brichardi?
 
You can fit more mbuna, but that tank is too small for the species you have selected and things will not go well as they grow bigger. I would also not mix Tanganyikan rockdwellers with mbuna, especially such aggressive mbuna as Auratus and Lombardoi.
 
I thought Lombardoi were commonly found in Lake Malawi. And what do you mean things will go wrong when they grow bigger? Is the tank too small? I'm planning on getting more cichlids to even out the aggression but it hasn't become a problem yet.
 
The Pseudotropheus lombardoi is from Lake Malawi and can grow up to five inches when it reaches adulthood. The Melanochromis auratus is also from Lake Malawi and can also grow up to five inches. Although this doesn't sound very large, the auratus is very aggressive and very territorial and it is recommended that they be kept in large tanks.

The Neolamprologus brichardi comes from Lake Tanganyika and needs lots of caves to hide in. They grow to between 3 to 4 inches by adulthood. So two of them with three five inch fish could get a little tight in a 30 gallon tank with the aggressiveness that the auratus may begin to display.

I don't own any brichardi's or lombardoi's, but I do have an auratus that was a terror for quite some time until I finally found some tankmates that he could tolerate and even that could still end up being up in the air as he started out fine with his original tankmates.
 
Lombaroi is almost as aggessive as Auratus, which are just as aggressive as bettalove says. You could say your tank is much to small, or you can say that you chose the wrong fish for your tank. I depends how you look at it.

In your shoes I would return those two fish and buy some more suitable Africans for a 30 gallon. If you get the rights species you can fit about 6 to 8 in your tank.

Some better options include Labidochromis Caeruleus, Iodotropheus Sprengera, Pseudotropheus Acei, and Pseudotropheus Saulos. Any fish starting with "Melanochromis" is not a good choice. Some Maylandias could work, like Estherae, but most are generally too aggressive for this tank. You can do a single Aulonocara specimen too, if you don't stock the tank too heavily, and provided you only go with less aggressive mbuna.

Brichardi, as mentioned, are the Tanganyikans, while the rest are Malawi. A pair of Brichardi would take your entire tank to themselves. One would technically work out, but a tank full of mbuna is not the most desirable environment for them.

The biggest drawback to cichlids are the amount of space they require. The smaller the tank, the more limited in species and mixing possibilities. 30 gallons is what I consider an absolute minimum tank size for even the least aggressive Malawis.
 
ok thanks. I'll do that. would johanni's or tropheus work out? What about a Fuellborn's Cichlid ( labeotropheus fuellborni)?
 
i am keeping tangs and shelldwellers with mbuna and they r getting along great and my altolamp is a "fry control unit" :shifty: nothing escapes him but i think it would work if the right fish r chosen like brichardi r very agressive i have one and he was terrorizing all other fish and they had tons of room they were all very samll an inch at tops and they were in a 70g so i had to seperate them
 

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