Planning A Mbuna Setup

[webber555]

Hi,

have been thinking of an African tank for a while, have a small tetra/loach community at the moment in a 60L, planted etc and have had a dwarf sth American cichlid/ tetras/rasboras etc community before as well in my 250L. The 250L is empty so I thought about doing something different (and I love the all rock setups of mbuna tanks) - until I found a small crack in the tank while cleaning it today...

Anyway, will replace with a similar size tank (maybe a bit thinner-55gal to fit a particular spot in my living room)in the new year sometime when I have some spare cash.
In the meantime I'm planning and researching everything...

We have semi hard water here (7.5) so I will either use coral sand as the substrate and river rocks/limestone to buffer or just use playsand and chuck some coral sand in the filter.

Filtration will either be a Fluval FX5 if I can get one at a reasonable price or a combo of smaller alternatives (any advice on what works well..?) Was going to splurge on a G6 but I've heard they may have issues and they don't turnover enough IMO for the price tag.

As far as stocking goes, there are so many to choose from and I don't know what works with each other. I have put together a list of what I like and what I think I can get, ones I'm particularly fond of are in bold.

Cynotilapia afra (Likoma)

Cynotilapia afra (Jalo Reef)

abidochromis caeruleus (Electric Yellow)

Labidochromis chisumulae

Labidochromis sp. "Hongi"

Metriaclima callainos

Metriaclima pyrsonotos (Red Top Zebra)

Pseudotropheus sp. "Acei" (Msuli)

Pseudotropheus cyaneorhabdos (M. Maingano)

Pseudotropheus sp. "Elongatus Mpanga"

Pseudotropheus saulosi

I don't think I have any that are really aggressive. For a 55gal I'm looking at 3 or 4 species with a ratio of 1Male to 4 or more Females. Is that about right? Which species in my list go together reasonably well?

cheers in advance (will wait patiently for expert advice... .

 

[Malawi MaD]

Hi,

have been thinking of an African tank for a while, have a small tetra/loach community at the moment in a 60L, planted etc and have had a dwarf sth American cichlid/ tetras/rasboras etc community before as well in my 250L. The 250L is empty so I thought about doing something different (and I love the all rock setups of mbuna tanks) - until I found a small crack in the tank while cleaning it today...

Anyway, will replace with a similar size tank (maybe a bit thinner-55gal to fit a particular spot in my living room)in the new year sometime when I have some spare cash.
In the meantime I'm planning and researching everything...

We have semi hard water here (7.5) so I will either use coral sand as the substrate and river rocks/limestone to buffer or just use playsand and chuck some coral sand in the filter.

Filtration will either be a Fluval FX5 if I can get one at a reasonable price or a combo of smaller alternatives (any advice on what works well..?) Was going to splurge on a G6 but I've heard they may have issues and they don't turnover enough IMO for the price tag.

As far as stocking goes, there are so many to choose from and I don't know what works with each other. I have put together a list of what I like and what I think I can get, ones I'm particularly fond of are in bold.

Cynotilapia afra (Likoma)

Cynotilapia afra (Jalo Reef)

abidochromis caeruleus (Electric Yellow)

Labidochromis chisumulae

Labidochromis sp. "Hongi"

Metriaclima callainos

Metriaclima pyrsonotos (Red Top Zebra)

Pseudotropheus sp. "Acei" (Msuli)

Pseudotropheus cyaneorhabdos (M. Maingano)

Pseudotropheus sp. "Elongatus Mpanga"

Pseudotropheus saulosi

I don't think I have any that are really aggressive. For a 55gal I'm looking at 3 or 4 species with a ratio of 1Male to 4 or more Females. Is that about right? Which species in my list go together reasonably well?

cheers in advance (will wait patiently for expert advice... .

Seem's you have already done some research mate as you have basically all the basics covered. The FX5 will be ideal for a 55G, if you cant find an FX5 at a reasonable price the larger Eheim Filters are decent too, been pretty similar to the FX5's. If you can't find either then 2 smaller externals will work just as well( Just means more pipework showing in the tank, to me its so irritating seeing pipework everywhere lol but i am fussy ) as long as you have a good turnover in your tank then any decent sized external's will be fine with the right media. You'r PH is fine as it is, your water hardness is what matters the most (KH,GH) but as long as its not to low its not to essential to tamper around with it too much unless you where planning on keeping Wild Mbuna. Nice list of fish, a nice locale species tank will always look nice (ie fish from around Likoma island like the afra you mentioned or fish from Lion's cove) These are just two examples. Obviously you would have to have a look about and see if you actually liked the fish from certain locale's if not then the ones you mentioned in Bold should be fine together. The Afra jalo's and Likoma's may interbreed with one another as the females do look quite similar, but if your not wanting to keep the fry then this isn't a problem. The Ratio's should work well to, you could get away with keeping multiple males with certain species as this spreads the aggression between males and females, meaning the females don't get too battered by the Dominant males.

Hope this helps

 

[webber555]

So if I dropped one of the afra species and went for the other 4 I have in bold, with say 6 of each species - is that too much for a 55gal? (24 fish!) Or would I be better to go with less numbers of each? Or choose 3 species only?

Will research locales and see if their is a combo I like that might habitat together naturally in the wild.

In terms of water turnover - if I aim say 10x does this need to be all through filtration or will a powerhead take some of that load although it doesn't actually filter anything, just moves water.

Thanks for the advice, looking to get as much as I can...

 

[Malawi MaD]

So if I dropped one of the afra species and went for the other 4 I have in bold, with say 6 of each species - is that too much for a 55gal? (24 fish!) Or would I be better to go with less numbers of each? Or choose 3 species only?

Will research locales and see if their is a combo I like that might habitat together naturally in the wild.

In terms of water turnover - if I aim say 10x does this need to be all through filtration or will a powerhead take some of that load although it doesn't actually filter anything, just moves water.

Thanks for the advice, looking to get as much as I can...

Yeah if you wanted to drop one of the Afra species then that will be fine. If your aiming for a turnover of 10x then 24 fish will be fine as long as regular maintenance is kept up with too. One good thing is all the mbuna you'r wanting to keep are slightly smaller species at adulthood apart from callaino's which is good if your wanting the slightly higher stocking numbers. I personally think larger numbers of species not just looks better, but it contributes to a more natural habitat for the fish + spreads out aggression throughout each individual species. Yeah locale set-ups can look amazing just takes time to get a decent stock list together.

Yeah all filtration mate the higher the better for malawi's, powerheads are a good addition in a mbuna set-up but wont contribute to your filtration.

 

[webber555]

Ok, so if I drop one of the afra species... and keep a ratio of 1m to 4-5f I should be ok. Which species out of those in bold are the more aggressive. The hongi? Would keeping 2 male hongi as well as the 4-5 females help?

Also if I was to go down the locale route - is their anywhere that lists different species and locales or is it just a matter of searching individual species? I know that the afra 'Likoma', some species of yellow lab as well as the Ps cyaneorhabdos (M. Maingano) come from Likoma island for example ,but what else? Anywhere to find out easily?

 

[Malawi MaD]

The Callainos could be quite a bossy species but i would only recommend 1M to 4F/5F as these do get larger. The hongi shouldn't be too bad, multiple males will be ok together. Thin is with mbuna they can act differently in different set-ups so it's hard to know exactly what multiple males could be like together, I would go with the basis of 1M to 4F/5F then as you watch your fish over time you could add an extra male/female to balance the stocking in your tank.

 

[Dieses Madchen]

I'm a fan of the Acei as they are pretty peaceful as far as Mbuna go (or am I lucky?) Another great species is Psuedotrpheus Socolofi, but they get a little on the bigger size.

 

[webber555]

Thanks for the tips guys, will keep researching and collecting bits and pieces of the setup as I go. Is it recommended to stock all in one go if I buy from the same supplier? Will be fishless cycling first of course... or is it better to add a species at a time? If so, how far in between each should I wait, and in what order? Just want to get it right first time rather than having a nasty time and trying to fix it later...

 

[Malawi MaD]

Thanks for the tips guys, will keep researching and collecting bits and pieces of the setup as I go. Is it recommended to stock all in one go if I buy from the same supplier? Will be fishless cycling first of course... or is it better to add a species at a time? If so, how far in between each should I wait, and in what order? Just want to get it right first time rather than having a nasty time and trying to fix it later...

Id add a group of 6 and leave it for a week or so just to give your filter time to ease in to the heavier stocking of a malawi tank. Then each time you add new fish try to add at least 6 to 12 fish at a time, so singular fish are not picked on/bullied. You Can move the rock work round a little to if they begin to fight when you add the new fish, will confuse your current fish a little giving the new fish time to settle and take a territory.

 

[webber555]

Thanks again Now the wait until I can get the new tank. Might go collect some rocks today tho...

 

[Malawi MaD]

Thanks again Now the wait until I can get the new tank. Might go collect some rocks today tho...

No worries mate dont forget pics

 

[webber555]

Just tested my tap water out of curiosity - ph is fine at 7.8 but the water is fairly soft - according to my Hagen kit my gh is soft (only took 2 drops to change colour) at 40mg/L.That's somewhere in the range of 2.3 I think (if I'm converting correctly) and kh is even worse at 1.1!!! Just noticed my test kit is out of date though by nearly 2 years! Would that throw off the results a lot or is it clear my water needs a buffer of some sort? Will buy a new test kit soon...

If so, what is recommended to make the water harder? I thought hardness naturally comes with higher ph levels???

 

[webber555]

any advice on what I should use to harden my tap water? ph is ok.

 

[Malawi MaD]

Im not to sure if an out of date test kit will make the results invalid, but it could do?. To buffer your water you can use lake malawi salts, add coral sand or limestone to your filter this will increase the hardness of your water.

 

[Mystil]

Im always wary about adding lots of things to the water to buffer as it can cost alot in the long run and you could get it horribly wrong.

If it were me and I was buying my fish from down the road I would ask the breeder what they use and what the water Parameters are before fiddling with my water GH as they might not do anything. Remember the fish might be tank bred so are used to local water conditions.

However I am a bad fish keeper, my fish get water straight out the tap with no added chemicals and are breeding like crazy. I also keep Wild caught fish in this environment aswell.

They have argos playsand and ocean rock (to help buffer the water abit).