Overstocked for a 55g?

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mikeybabs

Aquarium Advice Freak
Joined
Apr 24, 2011
Messages
250
Hi guys, I was wondering if this would be okay:

Right now I have 12 yellow labs in my 55g... they're all approximately 1-1.5"... Tomorrow I'll be getting 12 more mbuna cichlid which are also approximately 1-1.5"... would it be okay to temporarily keep 24 cichlid in the 55 gallon while they're that young, and then weed them out into another tank once they get bigger and able to determine their sex? Or am i risking deaths? The aquarium has obviously been cycled for some time with the 12 cichlids in it... and I know eventually i need to cut back the ammount to about 15-18 in the end... but would 24 of them be ok in the short term and at what length should I start taking them out? There is only going to be 3 different species of mbuna in this 55g...

Thank you all

-Mike

edit: also i believe there is sufficient filtration, but you guys can be the judge of that: i'm running a Marineland Emperor w/ Bio-Wheel 280 and a Whisper 60... is that enough? I also plan to add a Penguin Biowheel 200 to the tank later this week... so there will actually be 3 filters running on it...

edit #2: scratch the 3 filter idea, i dont have room on the back, so instead i was thinking of replacing one of the current 2 filters on it now with an aquaclear 70 that i should have at the end of the week... only if necessary... what do you guys think?

Thanks everyone!
 
You will be more that fine while those fish are juvies. And your aware of what you stocking limits are.

I would at some point invest in a canister filter like a Fluval 405, these are messy fish and that would be all the filtration you'll need.

What did you finally decide on?
 
Thanks guys...

One more question...

What would be the max amount of juvies I could safely hold in a 55g?

And I decided to go with yellow labs, red zebras, and johanni... After I decided to not be too worried about hybridization...

Thanks guys and thanks for the fluval filtration suggestion... I actually might buy the 404 from a friend... How does the 404 compare to the 405 and would it be the only filter I need for the 55g?

Thx!!!! :)
 
The 405 is a updated model, mainly the latch and top covers are different. I have 2 older 404's that leak around the seals, no matter what I did whether it's a new seal or vaseline. Until I found a conversion kit on eBay for $25. No I converted my 404's to 405's and couldnt be any happier. Otherwise it's the exact same filter, and would highly recommend it.
 
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