Urgent Advice Needed For Kenyi's

[wegotcrabs]

Hi all... we are in a bit of a pickle. We have a 55 gallon with African Cichlids(including a male and female kenyi) and 2 South Americans. We just added a Frontosa today and we feel that the male kenyi is singleing him out and fighting with him, more so than the others. We have also obsereved the female Kenyi being aggressive towards the others but really going after the Frontosa. We thought that it might have something to do with the similar stripe patterns, but what do we know.

We decided to go and pick up another tank, which we are setting up to cycle tonite. Our question was, do we move the Frontosa into the tank or do we move the Kenyi's? We still are not sure how the Kenyi's breed and if moving them would help them out. We just want all of our fish to be happy and we want to sleep easy at night.

Any Advice is ALWAYS appreciated. Between my boyfriend and I, it's the blind leading the blind.

Pics of our Kenyi's

55 Gallon

 

[Ferris]

The problem is the Frontosa, they are not really compatible with Mbuna and certainly not in a 55 gal i'm afraid. The Front is likely to be harrassed by the Kenyi (and other Mbuna) until he reaches a certain size and then the tables will be turned. Frontosa are similar in requirements to Oscar's in that they really need a min 75 gal for a single fish - these guys get huge.

I would certainly put the Front in the new tank but if it's not big enough - it's only going to be a short term solution unfortunately.

More bad news is mixing Mbuna with SA cichlids doesn't really work either - they usually have completely different water and dietary requirements. For example - your Kenyi are herbivores and most SA's are Carnivores.

What SA's do you have? - i don't see any in the pics. I can see various different Mbuna species (Crabro, Estherae, Albino Zebra, OB Zebra and possibly a Melanochromis species) what looks like an Aulonocara and a Venustus/Livingstoni - all of which are African.

Mostly bad news i'm afraid but i hope it helps anyway.

 

[wegotcrabs]

We are in way over our heads. My boyfriend is obsessed. I swear in a year we will have to spend 2 grand on new tank setups.
We have in our 55 gallon- -African Cichlids: Peacock, Red Zebra, Albino Zebra, Electric Yellow, Spotted Zebra, Bumblebee, Male and Female Kenyi, Livingstoni, Brichardi, 2 unknown

-1 Green Terror Cichlid

-1 Jewel Cichlid

-1 Figure 8 Puffer

-1 Pleco

-1 Synodontis Cat

That is just our 55. Then their is my boyfriends other tank which is a 29. He has 2 baby oscars about 2" a piece and a Dempsey that is 1 1/2" and a Pacu that is 2" plus a angelicus cat, a shark cat and an albino channel cat. He plans on buying a 210 gallon tank and building a stand within the year and some day when we have a house I told him he is digging a pond for that damn channel cat. The ph is 7.0 and the temp is 80 degrees. We have a Walmart filter built for a 30 as well as an aquaclear built for a 20. Since this tank is supposed to be temporary i don't think I will be changing to cannisters.

Our ph in the 55 is roughly 7.2. So far the terror and the jewel are fairing well. Although when we bought the frontosa the ph listed on its care was 7.2 and then when we got home we realized through research they like it much higher. We have a Cascade 1000 Cannister for filtration and we do weekly water changes and frequent water testing. the temp is 80 degrees.

So now we are completely drowning in fish!

ooo and we just bought another 29 to house the Frontosa I guess now.....

 

[Ferris]

Sounds too me like you need a 125 gal min to put the Oscar's, GT, JD and Pacu in.

Oscar - 14"
GT - 10"
JD - 9"
Pacu - anywhere between 18-30" (a true monster)

And a 75 gal for the Frontosa

Frontosa - 15"

The pond (or even a small swimming pool) is a good idea for the catfish too.

You have a lot of fish that are going to get seriously big, it's time to shop for new tanks or consider re-homing some of them.

 

[wegotcrabs]

Who would have guessed that fish could be so stressful!

That is our plan for the oscars, GT, JD and Pacu.

VEry expensive hobby. Thanks for your help we are trying to get pics of all our pets to put up.

 

[Ferris]

Yeah some pics would be great and yes - who would think keeping a few fish could cost so much.

Sounds like you've got all the right intentions and plans for your fish - good to see.