Help stocking

[fishyfriends3]

Only one male to 3 or 4 females I'd say 4 to be on the safe side.

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[Dooboedoo12]

Does it have to be only cichlids? I saw a beautiful tank the other day at my mall that had the labs, socolofi, 2 discus's , 2 and 2 clown loaches in their tank. I'm afraid of over population since it was a huge problem in my old 30 gal and that only had 3 fish

 

[erikmoseley]

What are te filters you're using for this?

 

[Dooboedoo12]

I have my ehiem 2217 (for a 160 gal tank) that I have basically done with its cycle and I have a ehiem 2213 ( for a 65 gal tank) that I'm going to have cleaned by my LFS and add to it once the 2217 is up and running. I can't do it now I have one fish in the 30 gal

 

[Brookster123]

Kind of jumping in late here but did you use limestone as a buffer or more of a decoration?

 

[erikmoseley]

I apologize you did say what you were using. I wouldn't worry about overstocking with those two filters running you will be fine. But as you know a weekly water change is recommended. I try my best but we all have things to do so I missed one here or there. I would honestly add about eight to start and then five or so days later add another eight And move the rocks around each time you add some. If you only put five or so fish in there and plan on that small amount you'll just end up with five super territorial dominant fish that won't let you will add anything else ever. That's my experience at least. I am using to canister filters on my 72 gallon and have about 20 fish in there and water conditions stay perfect

 

[fishyfriends3]

If anyone recommends keeping discus with mbuna I would be seriously worried. Discus are shy soft acidic water fish, mbuna are the exact opposite aggressive hard alkaline water fish. You have to decide which way you want to go. I would start by checking the ph of your tap water firstly straight out of the tap then 24 hours after it has come out of the tap ( keep it in a small container for 24 hours) I really don't know what is going on at the mall tank but I can't think of a worse mix than discus and mbuna.

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[fishyfriends3]

If you go with mbuna I'd go for 25 fish in a 90 gal. 5 species with 5 of each one male to four females of each species. If you want me to break it down further I'd recommend these 5 :-
Labidochromis caeruleus
Labidochromis hongi
Cynotilapia afra
Pseudotropheus socolofi

All of which you have said you want then you just need to choose the final species.

I would look at Labidochromis perlmutt or lodtropheus sprengerae myself or possibly labeotropheus trewavasae could work.

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[Dooboedoo12]

I had no idea I would need so many fish! I can't afford to buy 20 of them! I can afford the fish but the shipping will be unheard of for me. I just made myself go almost broke with the tank lol
What's the minimum for these fish?

 

[fishyfriends3]

You could buy in batches and rearrange all the rocks each time you introduce the next batch. I would say 25 is ideal as you must overstock to reduce aggression. Go for 5 batches one species at a time.

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[fishyfriends3]

Btw your tank will be awesome if you go for it. Please post lots of photos.

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[Dooboedoo12]

I'm at the mall. Here's that tank

 

[Dooboedoo12]

I love my cave but I'll mess it up for now until all the fish are in and than I'll fix it at the end

 

[erikmoseley]

The spotted guys are Scats. Brackish fish that get pretty large. Not ideal tank mates

 

[fishyfriends3]

I can't see any discus in there.

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[Dooboedoo12]

They have a few new fish as you can c in there. I'm guess they died

 

[Dooboedoo12]

None the less still not all the same category in that tank. I've been stuck in here for an hour and not one of them have been aggressive

 

[Dooboedoo12]

Can you id the two bigger fish on the top right for me? It's my first time seeing them and I like them

 

[erikmoseley]

Those are called either green scats or silver scats.

 

[fishyfriends3]

They are scats as erikmoseley said, they are a fish that need some salt. Mbuna are freshwater and can't handle salt. I wouldn't base your tank on this one at the mall if you do it will look good for a very short time then everything will start to die.