Cichlid's (African)

[greenmaji]

I would do 50-75% water changes and deep gravel vacs weekly or bi-weekly... the foods sound good for the fish.. live foods when they get closer to spawning age will encourge them to spawn.. Black worms is also a good live food as well.. on top of daphnia (you will want live daphnia magna when they get bigger if your going to be feeding it..they are bigger!) HTH.

by the way yes the cuckoo cats are out of the question! ROFL!

 

[Steven A]

Well I have just seen some more fish I like lol

Iodotropheus sprengerae (Rusty)

And I understand they are very small LOL 8)

Can I have these

 

[Fishyfanatic]

The male Rusty Cichlids are attractive in color, not as much the female. Are you wanting to breed them? If so, stick to a species only tank. Otherwise you could have a couple labs and a couple Rusty's. But the Rusty's are more suitable for your tank size than the labs. You could have maybe 6 of them. And if you get a combination of male and female, it would mix it up in regards to color.

 

[greenmaji]

more fish in your 30 gallon tank is going to be impossible.. you will have dead fish.. you really have to deside what fish you want to breed.. yellow labs can be done, no other fish can be added though.. if your intrested in spawning a fish then stick with your plan.. you could change over to another fish but then you would have to ditch your yellow lab. plan.. so its really up to you.. :?

 

[Menagerie]

Steven_Askham, I know you are a younger member and very excited to get going in the aquarium hobby. My advice to you is to do some of your own research. Everyone here is well intentioned, but what works in Ohio or Oregon, may not work for you.
Research the needs of Mbuna in general and then focus on yellow labs or rusties or whatever strikes your fancy specifically. Once you find the information yourself, you will retain it longer and it will allow you to make more informed decisions. AA is a great place for advice, and we have enough experience to help guide you; however, you need to be able to think about our advice and decide if it is best for you.
I disagree with greenmagi's advice on 50-75% water changes. IME, changing over 30% per week does not lead to spawning fish. It leads to stressed fish that may decided their environment is unfit for raising young. I do agree that a 30ish gallon tank should only hold one species in a limited number. You are correct in saying more Mbuna=less trouble and territory disputes, but in a tank that small, there's hardly any territory to dispute as it is and fish dealths will be high. I used to have my Mbuna in a 29 gallon and it was a disaster. Now they are in an 80 gallon and all is well.
Mbuna evolved as primarily vegetarians and this needs to be kept in mind when thinking about what foods to feed when getting ready to bred them. Too much protien can lead to Malawi bloat, which is often fatal.
How long have you been keeping fish? Are the angels breeding, or a male/female pair? I know it's a bummer to have a tank with ween little fish in there, but they will grow. Start small and work your way up. Along the same line, enjoy your fish first. Watch their behaviors, so you know when something is wrong, or if a fish is holding. Don't put the added pressure of breeding them on yourself. Do you have a plan for when they breed? Will you house the mother separately? What if the mother spits out her young too early (happened to one of my fish and the other fish gobbled up all the fry )? Do you have a grow out tank, or were you going to test the prinicples of "the strong will survive"? You need to think about all of this and research it and then ask questions.

 

[Steven A]

Thank you alot. I always to my research its just I get so many mixed opinions I get confused. On another forum i.e. a african cichlid one they said I would be fine to have 6 yellow labs and rusty's however on thiss forum it is a NO NO!
Were I live in the UK my local shops have a large number of malawis in tanks my size and all is fine even breeding!

I just get confused with so many mixed opinions. 8O

LOL. I may try it with the 10 fish but if it doesnt work out I can simply take some back to the store.

 

[greenmaji]

My mistake on the prep food.. they are algae grazers.. and the water changes really is a matter of oppinion.. In my oppinion if the water going in is near exactly the same peramiters as the water going out then its just cleaner water.. but if there is even a small difference in PH or KH or PO4 in the water going in then yes greater water changes could be bad.. I didnt clarify what I consider a proper water change.. making sure the water peramiters are as close to the same as possible is a givin for me, just not everyone.... and the only reason I thought you could use this aquarium is because of its great surfase area compaired to its size.... a 29 gallon is like your aquarium up on its side and this is far from the same tank in my opinion..
Doing your own reaserch is definatly a great idea but I would recomend not doing all of your reserch at foums.. I would suggest that you read documented needs of the fish your intrested in.. Not someone elses experiances..
http://www.fishbase.org
http://www.mongabay.com
Are just two examples of sites that you can look into... and I would advise you to look into..

 

[shawmutt]

Still going on about those cichlids huh? OK, last post on my part.

I used to have my Mbuna in a 29 gallon and it was a disaster.

I second this, like I said before, mine were in a 30 and it sucked. This is IME, not IMO--big difference. I also agree that 10 is way too many for that tank. I have never seen a permanent display in a pet store of a 30 gallon tank stocked with cichlids, and I've been in a lot of lfs. I have seen 55 gallon and up displays. Usually stores that are able to set up cichlid displays want to show off thier bigger cichilds, not a whole tank of zebras and labs. The cichlids I bought swam around aimlessly for about 2 weeks before settling into territories--then they settled in and got mean.

However, you seem hell-bent on getting those fish, so at least stick around later to perhaps try and save the next person from the stress. I am interested in your future endeavors with these fish.

FWIW I "make" my own water for my tanks. I start with store bought RO water and mix ingredients in it to make the optimum water conditions for my fish. This allows me to have soft, acidic water for my 30 gallon planted tank and hard, alkaline water for my 10 gallon with my one killer cichlid left over from my failed mbuna tank.

 

[Steven A]

Well I just purchased my fish 6 young yellow labs and boy am I disapointed they are tiny .... i.e. this big ----------------------- I am deffo buying some more smaller fish and if A problem arrises I will deal with it. I cant see there being any problem until they are much much older and my lfs has told me they will take some back if there is a problem. I only have six small fish in the tank atm this may soon change.

 

[tetrin]

one established way to get a good m/f ratio in a malawi tank is to start with about 10-12 juvies (even 15-20 might work) in your sized tank. then cull the males as they grow until you are left with one or two males.
having even a subdominant male in your tank might be detrimental to breeding. i read somewhere that the subdominant male harasses a holding female to cause her to either spit or swallow the fry. but then again all this is based on a particular set of fish and in your case it might not work.
one more great advice (taken from somewhere) - do not set up the tank with a mindset of breeding mbunas. provide a natural condition for these fish in your tank, and they WILL breed.

but please remember that i have NEVER kept these fish. so take any advice with a grain of salt

 

[TankGirl]

I agree with the above - you are not going to have an active, colorful community African setup in a tank this size. I could not do it in a 44gal, because all it takes is one fish with attitude and the whole tank becomes a disaster.

When it comes to Africans you can do shelldwellers, you can do a pair of N. brichardi and probably a trio or quad of yellow labs, for instance but it is too small of a tank to follow the typical overstocking recommendations.

It will take a little time but the labs will grow pretty quickly (they are some of the fastest growing fry I have ever had) and hopefully you will wind up with a trio, or a male and 3 females, but more fish than that and there will likely be trouble.

Keep an eye on things, but we are just trying to spare you some of the trouble we have already had in our efforts to keep these very cool fish.

 

[Steven A]

Thanx. I now like the tank atm with just these 6 TINY fish atm. Now they are starting to get use to the tank they are being very active. I know that the tank is right for these fish and hopefully when they are older they will breed. At the moment they are about ------------------- Big. I have been told that once they get to ---------------------------- they start to breed / pair off so i will ahve to wait and see. There are 6 at the moment I might add 2 more though LOL

 

[Steven A]

This is the tank and just two of the yellow labs (Tiny) in the tank lol

 

[Steven A]

I am sticking to my six lol

There settled in to there new home, and by cosh do they eat alot 8O

 

[greenmaji]

A greater surfase area tank is in my experiance is better for aggresive fish.. Ive kept a multitude of differnt types of africans in the past.. If you would have done your own reaserch you would have found that Im not the only one who has had the same experiance.. and keeping more then one speices and calling a single species tank a faliure waiting to happen is from lack of reaserch..
Steven_Askham... did you read other sites to do some reaserch of your own?.. not forums?
And keep us posted..

 

[Steven A]

Of Course I did research not just from the net I borowed a 556 page book from local lfs and did some research thats why I thought it would be better to have more than 6 while at this size lol. I am pelased with the tank and the response I got from this amazing forum. 8)

 

[Steven A]

*Pleased

 

[greenmaji]

And what was the subjet of the book you read, part of Im assuming?