Fifty Gallon Mbuna Stocking

[RCShevalier]

I've recently acquired a fifty gallon aquarium and have been humming and hawing over what type of fish I want to stock it with. I am currently considering the possibility of stocking the tank with Mbuna cichlids. I have, however, never owned cichlids before and have quite a bit to learn. After browsing Big Als today, these are the fish that caught my eye the most:

Electric Yellow Cichlid
Snow White Socoloffi (Pseudotropheus socolofi)
Yellow Tail Acei
Electric Blue Johanni

What do I need to know about these fish? Would I be able to fit all of them into a 50 gallon? How many of each species is best? Any input on this would be great.

Thanks.

 

[Daven]

I've recently acquired a fifty gallon aquarium and have been humming and hawing over what type of fish I want to stock it with. I am currently considering the possibility of stocking the tank with Mbuna cichlids. I have, however, never owned cichlids before and have quite a bit to learn. After browsing Big Als today, these are the fish that caught my eye the most:

Electric Yellow Cichlid
Snow White Socoloffi (Pseudotropheus socolofi)
Yellow Tail Acei
Electric Blue Johanni

What do I need to know about these fish? Would I be able to fit all of them into a 50 gallon? How many of each species is best? Any input on this would be great.

Thanks.

What are the dimensions for your tank? Ideally these should all be in a 4 foot long tank. All mbuna are territorial/aggresive, but when we talk about a species being "peaceful" or "aggresive" it is more based on the average mbuna. That being said, electric yellow, acei, and the socolofi are all generally peaceful. Where as the johanni are known to be real aggresive and i dont think would be a good choice for you even if your tank was a good size.

When stocking these fish, you should try to have 1 male to 3 females if at all possible. More than one male of a species results in one of them getting picked on and chased alot since they are not very tolerant of other males. When stocking aggressive tanks you will have to monitor and likely remove fish that get picked on or are too aggressive to others in the tank. And make sure to have ALOT of hiding spots and places that they can claim as their territory.

It can be a pain some days, but all in all i love my mbuna tank. I have a 75 gallon tank that has 4 electric yellows, 4 acei, and 1 snow white socolofi among others, and i find the 3 dont cause any issues and generally keep to themselves. If you do end up going with mbuna, i recommend getting groups of the electric yellows and acei. I have only kept basic small community fish before this and they bored me. These guys have more personality

 

[RCShevalier]

What are the dimensions for your tank? Ideally these should all be in a 4 foot long tank. All mbuna are territorial/aggresive, but when we talk about a species being "peaceful" or "aggresive" it is more based on the average mbuna. That being said, electric yellow, acei, and the socolofi are all generally peaceful. Where as the johanni are known to be real aggresive and i dont think would be a good choice for you even if your tank was a good size.

When stocking these fish, you should try to have 1 male to 3 females if at all possible. More than one male of a species results in one of them getting picked on and chased alot since they are not very tolerant of other males. When stocking aggressive tanks you will have to monitor and likely remove fish that get picked on or are too aggressive to others in the tank. And make sure to have ALOT of hiding spots and places that they can claim as their territory.

It can be a pain some days, but all in all i love my mbuna tank. I have a 75 gallon tank that has 4 electric yellows, 4 acei, and 1 snow white socolofi among others, and i find the 3 dont cause any issues and generally keep to themselves. If you do end up going with mbuna, i recommend getting groups of the electric yellows and acei. I have only kept basic small community fish before this and they bored me. These guys have more personality

Thanks for the reply Daven.

The tank dimensions are: 4 feet long, 12 inches wide, 18.5 inches deep.

You mentioned a ratio of 1 male for 3 females. My understanding is that many of these fish are hard to sex. Does that mean I would just need to be prepared to return fish and hope the next one I got was the right sex?

Also, you recommended getting groups of electric yellow and acei. By "groups" do you refer to 4 fish as a group? Would getting 4 of the Electric Yellows, Acai, and Socolofi be overstocked?

 

[Daven]

Thanks for the reply Daven.

The tank dimensions are: 4 feet long, 12 inches wide, 18.5 inches deep.

You mentioned a ratio of 1 male for 3 females. My understanding is that many of these fish are hard to sex. Does that mean I would just need to be prepared to return fish and hope the next one I got was the right sex?

Also, you recommended getting groups of electric yellow and acei. By "groups" do you refer to 4 fish as a group? Would getting 4 of the Electric Yellows, Acai, and Socolofi be overstocked?

I have a tank with those dimensions sitting empty here too! I believe it calculated to be 45 gallons, but being 48x12" it has the same footprint as a 55 gallon. So it should be fine for most mbuna. Im going to be helping my mother set up the tank i mentioned and will likely have the same fish.

Yes, unfortunately you will likely end up with fish that need to be returned. It can be a bummer, and a pain to do, but it is worth it in the end instead of having a tank of constantly stressed fish. I started out with a group of 4 Acei and they have grown to about 2.5" or so without any issues. My next group was 5 electric yellows which the breeder helped me vent them (the only real way to tell sexes for some mbuna) and i ended up getting 1 male, 3 female, and a 5th that was hard to tell so either way. I could tell later that the 5th was a male because he went from bright yellow to almost white right away, as the bigger confirmed male got brighter and would occasionally target the smaller one. I ended up rehoming the smaller male since he never did really colour up and i felt bad. I also bought 4 "Ice Blue" greshaki. Turned out to be 3 males and 1 female (unlucky :/). The 1st male was attacked on the hour long drive home from being stuck in the cramped bag. Let him heal up in a separate tank and rehomed him. Then i rehomed the 2nd male later on as he also didnt colour up and the dominant one was starting to get rougher with him. Just a couple of my experiences in case it helps. Now if i am buying a group i get 6 and as/if i have issues i rehome to hopefully get my desired amount.


Most recommend around 15 mbuna for the taller 55 gallon, so my thoughts are 12-14 would be ok in that tank. So i think groups of yellow labs, Acei, and Snow white socolofi would be great and shouldnt have much for aggression as theyre all usually pretty mellow. And if you are able to get 6 at a time and have no need to get rid of 2 in a group, you could fit a couple more instead of just 4. This is simular to what im planning for her as well

I know i can ramble on sometimes, but ill mention one more thing lol What are you planning to run for filters? These fish are waste-machines when the get big and these tanks usually end up overstocked a bit vs other tanks to help with aggresion (doesnt let one fish get targetted as easy). You should try to have a filter(s) that will filter a Gallon Per Hour (GPH) of 10x your tanks capacity. So if your tank is 50 gallons, you want to aim for 500 GPH. My tank is a 75 gallon and i personally run two HOB filters for a total of 1000 GPH. More never hurts, but you need to make sure you have good filtration.

 

[RCShevalier]

I have a tank with those dimensions sitting empty here too! I believe it calculated to be 45 gallons, but being 48x12" it has the same footprint as a 55 gallon. So it should be fine for most mbuna. Im going to be helping my mother set up the tank i mentioned and will likely have the same fish.

Yes, unfortunately you will likely end up with fish that need to be returned. It can be a bummer, and a pain to do, but it is worth it in the end instead of having a tank of constantly stressed fish. I started out with a group of 4 Acei and they have grown to about 2.5" or so without any issues. My next group was 5 electric yellows which the breeder helped me vent them (the only real way to tell sexes for some mbuna) and i ended up getting 1 male, 3 female, and a 5th that was hard to tell so either way. I could tell later that the 5th was a male because he went from bright yellow to almost white right away, as the bigger confirmed male got brighter and would occasionally target the smaller one. I ended up rehoming the smaller male since he never did really colour up and i felt bad. I also bought 4 "Ice Blue" greshaki. Turned out to be 3 males and 1 female (unlucky :/). The 1st male was attacked on the hour long drive home from being stuck in the cramped bag. Let him heal up in a separate tank and rehomed him. Then i rehomed the 2nd male later on as he also didnt colour up and the dominant one was starting to get rougher with him. Just a couple of my experiences in case it helps. Now if i am buying a group i get 6 and as/if i have issues i rehome to hopefully get my desired amount.


Most recommend around 15 mbuna for the taller 55 gallon, so my thoughts are 12-14 would be ok in that tank. So i think groups of yellow labs, Acei, and Snow white socolofi would be great and shouldnt have much for aggression as theyre all usually pretty mellow. And if you are able to get 6 at a time and have no need to get rid of 2 in a group, you could fit a couple more instead of just 4. This is simular to what im planning for her as well

I know i can ramble on sometimes, but ill mention one more thing lol What are you planning to run for filters? These fish are waste-machines when the get big and these tanks usually end up overstocked a bit vs other tanks to help with aggresion (doesnt let one fish get targetted as easy). You should try to have a filter(s) that will filter a Gallon Per Hour (GPH) of 10x your tanks capacity. So if your tank is 50 gallons, you want to aim for 500 GPH. My tank is a 75 gallon and i personally run two HOB filters for a total of 1000 GPH. More never hurts, but you need to make sure you have good filtration.

Thanks again Daven. I did the calculations online and it seems as though you are right with the 45 gallon comment. I bought the aquarium online as a 50 gallon. Oh well, not the end of the world.

Question about the stocking of fish. I am hoping to get these fish slowly over time. Maybe buy six of one species, then buy 6 of the next a couple of months later. Is it going to be an issue to be stocking the tank with juveniles when there are other older species already inhabiting the aquarium?

As for filtration, I currently have a HOB Aquaclear that does 300gph. By the time I have multiple species in the tank I will plan to have either another HOB or cannister filter.

 

[keegster803]

Thanks again Daven. I did the calculations online and it seems as though you are right with the 45 gallon comment. I bought the aquarium online as a 50 gallon. Oh well, not the end of the world.



Question about the stocking of fish. I am hoping to get these fish slowly over time. Maybe buy six of one species, then buy 6 of the next a couple of months later. Is it going to be an issue to be stocking the tank with juveniles when there are other older species already inhabiting the aquarium?



As for filtration, I currently have a HOB Aquaclear that does 300gph. By the time I have multiple species in the tank I will plan to have either another HOB or cannister filter.

If your adding them slowly, I'd recommend resetting the landscape every time you add new fish, as the territories are different and all the fish will be trying to make new territories and will be in the same boat as the new arrivals


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[Daven]

The gallon capacity is important, but the space in the bottom is a bit more important. For a 45 gallon you will have more "usable" space than the usual shape.

Adding new fish at fm different times is ok. You don't want to add too much at one time as it is because it could put too much extra load in the biological bacteria that takes care of the waste(have you looked into cycling a tank yet?). As mentioned above, it helps to rearrange EVERY object in the tank when adding new fish or even when you are noticing a lot of aggression in general. It resets the territories so they won't have specific spots in the tank claimed where the new fish will be "invading". In my experience, new fish are always targeted heavily for the first few days since the existing fish aren't used to seeing that kind around in their tank. But once they get used to seeing that fish they slowly wear off. And larger numbers work a lot better for this so there's not just one target being chased by 10+ fish lol

I've been adding fish slowly throughout the 3 or so months


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[Daven]

Also I have just added my last group of fish that are about 1.25" long in with my biggest two fish being around 4" or so. They are fine now that they're settled in a bit. Just make sure new fish can't fit in the other's mouth lol


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[RedDevil83]

If you can get a red top zebra or two those are nice to look at...

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