Thoughts on the last of my 75g mbuna stocking?

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Daven

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Saskatchewan (Canada)
Hey guys, just wondering what you guys would rather see for the last couple mbuna for my tank. Its a 48x18" 75 gallon tank with two AC110s for filtration. Here is my current stock...

-4 Yellow labs (1m/3f)
-4 Acei (Havent vented them so unsure, but no issues so far)
-2 Metraclima Greshaki (1m/1f)
-1 Rusty (male)
-1 Blueberry cobalt zebra (male)
-1 Snow white socolofi (male)
-1 Red tailed shark (male)

All are between 2-3.5" i beleive, aside from the little socolofi maybe more like 1.5". I havent seen much aggresion other than the odd chase and my Rusty being the dominant fish and chasing most of them. I have noticed a few torn top fins that i think are from the shark. The mbuna love to swim through his territories lol For stock i was thinking of getting 1m/3f of Saulosi to add a final stream of colour and keep it more on the peaceful side of mbuna. Previously i was trying to find males of the different kinds to add as much colour, but ended up unsure whether it would cause issues since i have groups of some and single males of the rest. I know it may be tough on the greshaki female being the only one, so i wouldnt mind finding another female if i can. But i ended up with 3 males so far so i havent had much luck with them lol Also i just rehomed my 5th yellow lab because i fealt he could be happier instead of being the absolute smallest in the tank and so peaceful, and i may consider getting a 5th one of similar size to the rest.

Thoughts?
 
Pairing them seems to help alot.

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Pairing them seems to help alot.

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I like the idea of having groups, but that meant having only 3-4 different colours in the tank. So i ended up finding a couple singles that i thought would add variety in. So im thinking now that waiting to find 1m/3f Saulosi might be a good end to the stocking. Would you guys agree?
 
I would most likely go by what the fish would be happy about as opposed to what the fish keeper wants.

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I would most likely go by what the fish would be happy about as opposed to what the fish keeper wants.

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Definately. So what issues do you see above with my list? Females for the greshaki is on my list. I have more females than males in the groups. And when i asked about whether or not keeping a single male would be an issue, i was told it would be ok. My theories on it say that it could cause more aggresion towards other species instead of focus on females, but i havent had issues so far. So why dont you give me your opinion on what YOU would add or change since thats what im looking for in this thread. If not thats fine, but dont just tell me im hurting the fish and not address how so. Not many like to give their opinions when i ask on here and google only goes so far. Hardly worth the typing some days
 
I was going off that you want single species/colors which doesn't always work out and alot of species like to stick together is my Ultimate point.

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More females than males may cause conflict but that's just my opinion, I'm not saying your doing a bad thing and I'm sure you have alot under control, it's just my opinion and opinions are like you know whats. Lol

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More females than males may cause conflict but that's just my opinion, I'm not saying your doing a bad thing and I'm sure you have alot under control, it's just my opinion and opinions are like you know whats. Lol

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Thought it was the opposite?? More males would certainly stress the females??

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More females than males may cause conflict but that's just my opinion, I'm not saying your doing a bad thing and I'm sure you have alot under control, it's just my opinion and opinions are like you know whats. Lol

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Most certainly is not that way. Proper ratio is 1:3-4 males to females. A single male can harass a single female to death....not really an opinion to that when it's a known fact...


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I'm talking males fighting over females

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I know ideal is a large group. But keeping one male of each group with 3 females was supposed to be best. That part I do see. I wasn't sure if the principals of an all male tank leave when one or more of the species have females and others are just a single male. This is why I decided to stop with getting single males. My tank is still young, but the larger of the group are the single males and around 3.5-4" for the larger ones. I haven't noticed any difference so far from the groups and single males behaviour.

All male tanks operate on the principal of not having females to fight over. Would this be thrown away by another different species having females?


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So i poked around for a while and it seems its not as common to find saulosi around here without going through alot of effort to do so lol Man i wish i could just order in fish online. The main store i go to got a new shipment in and i decided to try some maingano (Melanochromis cyaneorhabdos) instead since the colouring is nice. They were labeled as johanni but i noticed that they were all blue/black being 1.5" or less so that couldnt be true. The worker there wasnt very helpful when i asked about the scientific name, and i never did get an answer. Seems from what i remember reading, that they shouldnt be too crazy like the johanni is known to sometimes be so i figured they could make a nice addition. I always liked the demansoni colours but knew i couldnt house them well, so these guys are close to that anyways.

I picked up 6 so hopefully they turn out ok. But im used to monitoring and removing troublesome males and whatnot now lol Its a major pain having so many hiding spots when it comes down to that :p
 
Yeah alot of lfs don't know what they are talking about and tell you OH NICE FISHY YOU BUY PLEASE!

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Yeah alot of lfs don't know what they are talking about and tell you OH NICE FISHY YOU BUY PLEASE!

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Lol exactly. Or i get alot of "theyre all aggressive, that one should be fine. Just mix around your decorations when you have issues" lol
 
Lol exactly. Or i get alot of "theyre all aggressive, that one should be fine. Just mix around your decorations when you have issues" lol

Yesterday I asked the lfs employee if a clown knife would be ok in a 90 with a Flower horn and mixed mbuna and he said yeah it'll be ok lol I'm not joking either....:/

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Yesterday I asked the lfs employee if a clown knife would be ok in a 90 with a Flower horn and mixed mbuna and he said yeah it'll be ok lol I'm not joking either....:/

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Lol Seems i can never win with stores here. One seems to know its compatibilities and will actually tell me what he thinks something wont work (to his best knowledge anyways), but i dont like how dirty the tanks are and i almost always see dead fish in a couple tanks when i go. So i drive an hour to the main one i visit and spend a half hour in the isles reading up for it myself if he has something that catches my eye :/
 
Lol Seems i can never win with stores here. One seems to know its compatibilities and will actually tell me what he thinks something wont work (to his best knowledge anyways), but i dont like how dirty the tanks are and i almost always see dead fish in a couple tanks when i go. So i drive an hour to the main one i visit and spend a half hour in the isles reading up for it myself if he has something that catches my eye :/

Yeah if I see ich or some kind of growth I usually won't get a fish , but it's nice to know how to treat one and end the suffering.

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Yeah if I see ich or some kind of growth I usually won't get a fish , but it's nice to know how to treat one and end the suffering.

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I never noticed actual illness that was visable, a couple overly scrawny fish though. My suspect was how they handle and introduce the fish. They seem very rammy with the bags. But the dirty tank thing is another thing. I try not to take my chances much there, and watch any fish we get there very well before and after. So far the fish have been fine from there for us but its eary enough to not go there first lol
 
I never noticed actual illness that was visable, a couple overly scrawny fish though. My suspect was how they handle and introduce the fish. They seem very rammy with the bags. But the dirty tank thing is another thing. I try not to take my chances much there, and watch any fish we get there very well before and after. So far the fish have been fine from there for us but its eary enough to not go there first lol

They are rough with the bags I noticed also...flop them on the counter and they say, you have cash? And get kind of upset if you use card lol

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