Tanks Mbuna Tank Diary (pics & Video)

[denis coghlan]

Just put together another short video. This one also has two additional tanks in it.

BEWARE this is a big file and you will need a fast connection to watch it.

Enjoy

"Tanks" tanks

 

[clareriley]

Just put together another short video. This one also has two additional tanks in it.

BEWARE this is a big file and you will need a fast connection to watch it.

Enjoy

"Tanks" tanks

Another great video. The reason I was asking about the labs being pure is coz I have never seen deep vertical or horizontal stripes on them as you have on one of your pics. Might have been settling in though.

cant wait for more updates

 

[denis coghlan]

The reason I was asking about the labs being pure is coz I have never seen deep vertical or horizontal stripes on them as you have on one of your pics. Might have been settling in though

Hi clare, The verticle and horizontal strips are still visable but are not as prominant as when the fish where placed in the tank at the start. The labs that I have are called Labidochromis caeruleus (Lion's Cove II). They are very similar to the other two types of Labs these being

Labidochromis caeruleus (Lion's Cove I) and
Labidochromis caeruleus kakusa

The only variation that I can see between the fish is the colour and that lab kakusa might be bigger from belly to dorsal.

Here is another picture of Labidochromis caeruleus (Lion's Cove II) from another site. You can also see that the verticle and horizontal strips are still visable on both fish. Also this trait only seems to show in the females.

tanks

 

[Nick Sw]

Nice Video thanks for sharing it, keep the updates on the tank going.
So the Yellowtails turned out to be Mpanga for definate then. I`d be happy with them anyway.

Nick

 

[denis coghlan]

Nice Video thanks for sharing it, keep the updates on the tank going.
So the Yellowtails turned out to be Mpanga for definate then. I`d be happy with them anyway.

Thanks nick. Yeah I'm happy with the mpanga, its the fish that I wanted anyway regardless of the name. I will have more pics on thursday. I'm picking up the next installment of fish, three Afra "cobue"'s. How are you getting along with the ideas for the tank?

 

[Nick Sw]

Nice Video thanks for sharing it, keep the updates on the tank going.
So the Yellowtails turned out to be Mpanga for definate then. I`d be happy with them anyway.

Thanks nick. Yeah I'm happy with the mpanga, its the fish that I wanted anyway regardless of the name. I will have more pics on thursday. I'm picking up the next installment of fish, three Afra "cobue"'s. How are you getting along with the ideas for the tank?

I`m hopefully getting a Tank on Sunday (264 Litre) I`m still researching about Cichlids and Tropical Fish in general as much as I can but I`m definately going to go for a Malawi Cichlid setup, I`m actually getting nervous about the thought of it all ! My Girlfriend thinks I`m mad but shes leaving me to it now .

When I look at the types the ones that catch my eye are always seem to be the really aggressive ones Melanochromis johannii , Pseudotropheus demasoni, Maylandia crabro etc. Which i`m probably best staying away from inatially.
I `ve got plenty of time to think while my tanks cycling but I`d definately like some of the Mpanga like you have and the Yellow Labs are great too or something along those lines.

I`m yet to find some decent rock I suppose I`ll need that or at least some of it before I start with the cycling , I had a look at some Tufa rock in a Garden Centre that seemed ok at £2.50/KG it`s not cheap although it`s quite light as rock goes.
Look forwad to seeing the new guys in the tank Thursday.

Nick

 

[denis coghlan]

I`m yet to find some decent rock I suppose I`ll need that or at least some of it before I start with the cycling , I had a look at some Tufa rock in a Garden Centre that seemed ok at £2.50/KG it`s not cheap although it`s quite light as rock goes.
Look forwad to seeing the new guys in the tank Thursday.

Go you, 264l’s. That a lot of water and a lot of room to play with

Yeah I have to say it is a bit daunting with all the possibilities and combinations of fish that you can choose and use. I would defiantly recommend the labs, I know they are very common but they are an ace fish with buckets of character. The mpanga are in the cichlid-forum.com profiles area as being of the same aggression as the Pseudotropheus demasoni (which look great). From what I have read so far sometimes you can get lucky or be unlucky with individual fish aggression, I read a post once, where a guy had a female lab that was just nuts, couldn’t put it with anything and they are meant to be the docile type. He/she didn’t know what to do with it and didn’t have a spare tank so he put it in with a large Oscar, all he said was that the oscar didn’t do too well and had lots of missing fins.

About the rock. If you have transport of any kind I would recommend that you go rock hunting. (although maybe you have your heart set on tufta rock) I travelled over 400 miles (there and back) to get free rock. It saved me a fortune on the initial setup and I will defiantly do it again. It just seems crazy to me to be spending so much money on something that somebody else collected for free and sold on. Although it does look very nice and it comes with pre made holes.

Yeah I’m also looking forward to Thursday, I will defo post pics when the fish are in the tank.

P.s. The girlfriend thing!! Remember its still your money and time. When you call her wife it’s a whole different ball game. Nothing will be yours not even this new tank

 

[SamUK]

i think the vertical lines on the yellow labs mean its not pure bred.

 

[Neal]

Those videos are almost proffesional, I would love to have cichlids after watching them, I had no idea they followed each other all over. The only thing I don't like about cichlids is that your tank has to have lots of rocks in it, and I don't like rocks!

Neal

 

[denis coghlan]

i think the vertical lines on the yellow labs mean its not pure bred.

When I was purchasing the fish I asked owner at the lfs, about the lines, he said that it was natural for juvenile female Labidochromis caeruleus (Lion's Cove II) to show these markings. He said that they reduce in darkness as the fish age. At the moment my fish are very much still juvenile. He also said that these marking will also still show slightly in the adult fish depending on which way the light falls and reflects of the scales surface.

Check out the profile at cichlid-forum.com, in the profile pic, the fish on the bottom right still shows signs of these marking but only very slightly.

Labidochromis caeruleus (Lion's Cove II)

I have noticed in my own fish that the marking are reducing in darkness.

 

[Nick Sw]

Yeah the tank size I`m a bit worried about that a started off about 6 weeks ago going to get a small tank for Coldwater fish then I saw the Tropicals and thought about a Juwel Rekord 60/70 I actually bid on one on Ebay didn`t win it. Then I had my heart set on a Juwel Rio 125, I`ve now upped my thinking to a 4ft foot tank as recommended for Cichlids and the piece of advice that I always read is get the biggest tank you can afford / find space for so hopefully I`ve done that just hope it`s not too big.

I`ve seen a few fish that seem to have more "character" than other fish of the same type , I watched one in a LFS a yellow Lab I think it was chasing all the other fish round scooping up gravel , spitting it out , a lot more active than the other fish.

I think maybe the sensible option would be make sure everythings settled then just add 2 or 3 fish for the first month or so and see how they get on but then it`s resisting temptation to buy more !

 

[denis coghlan]

I think maybe the sensible option would be make sure everythings settled then just add 2 or 3 fish for the first month or so and see how they get on but then it`s resisting temptation to buy more !

If you are only going to add two or three fish to start with I would go with adding labs. If you initially add the more aggressive fish first then add the less aggressive fish second there will be a good bit of bullying going on. Temptation temptation temptation, its defiantly a tough one to crack. Where are you going to be putting the tank in your house or apartment?

 

[SamUK]

i think the vertical lines on the yellow labs mean its not pure bred.

When I was purchasing the fish I asked owner at the lfs, about the lines, he said that it was natural for juvenile female Labidochromis caeruleus (Lion's Cove II) to show these markings. He said that they reduce in darkness as the fish age. At the moment my fish are very much still juvenile. He also said that these marking will also still show slightly in the adult fish depending on which way the light falls and reflects of the scales surface.

Check out the profile at cichlid-forum.com, in the profile pic, the fish on the bottom right still shows signs of these marking but only very slightly.

Labidochromis caeruleus (Lion's Cove II)

I have noticed in my own fish that the marking are reducing in darkness.

hmmmmm. im only going on what ive read in the african cichlids forum.you should ask there.

 

[Nick Sw]

I think maybe the sensible option would be make sure everythings settled then just add 2 or 3 fish for the first month or so and see how they get on but then it`s resisting temptation to buy more !

If you are only going to add two or three fish to start with I would go with adding labs. If you initially add the more aggressive fish first then add the less aggressive fish second there will be a good bit of bullying going on. Temptation temptation temptation, its defiantly a tough one to crack. Where are you going to be putting the tank in your house or apartment?

Yeah In my house in the Living room back corner away from the window hopefully it will be ok there and fit in.
Yes I think 1M 2F Labs would be a good start I`ll look into it, I`m going to buy a book maybe tomorrow and have a read up more on Cichlids specifically. The tank comes with a External Fluval 305 I think this will be ok to begin with but do you think I`ll need to add more filtration as more fish go in?

 

[denis coghlan]

Yeah In my house in the Living room back corner away from the window hopefully it will be ok there and fit in.
Yes I think 1M 2F Labs would be a good start I`ll look into it, I`m going to buy a book maybe tomorrow and have a read up more on Cichlids specifically. The tank comes with a External Fluval 305 I think this will be ok to begin with but do you think I`ll need to add more filtration as more fish go in?

Ok from what I have read so far, the ideal filtration for a fully stocked cichlid tank is 5 complete tanks cycles per hours. That means you are aiming at approximately 1320 l/h for your tank. The fluval 305 does 710 l/h therefore you are only achieving a little over half the recommend filtration per hour. This maybe ok for the initial stock of three fish but it might be wise to get the other filter at the start. The reason being, if I recall you said you wanted to carry out a fishless cycle? it will take a lot longer to cycle the tank properly with only the one external.

Does the tank also have an internal?
Just out of curiosity do you live in England and if you do what part?

My filtration is as follows
The external filter is a Tetra ex700, this "as the name suggests" has a flow of 700lph.
The juwel internal filter has a flow of 600lph.

Thus the combined flow will be 1300lph or a complete tank turn over 7.2 times every hour or 174 times a day.