Have a 4ft x 2ft x 2ft tank about 119 US gallons, just want peopled thought on the number of African cichlids I can keep. I have 12 fish on order, but I read 20 is my limit I thought that was a lower number considering the size of the tank????? But it was worked out on gallons if that makes sense.
Stocking question
- Thread starter Ukdans1k
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Mogurako
Aquarium Advice Addict
That's a 120 us gallon tank, probably one of my favorite footprints for a 4' tank. Africans is a extremely generic term. What lake and sub-species group are you thinking about? That will determine your stock level.
Lake Malawi cichlids, haven't decided what species yet. Got some sulphur heads and some metriaclima aroura mizambiques coming. But I have possibly five of these tanks I can fill and 3 tanks that are 4x2x16
Total numbers and breeding group suggestions welcome . Ty
Total numbers and breeding group suggestions welcome . Ty
Mogurako
Aquarium Advice Addict
You realize that just saying lake Malawi fish is almost as generic as saying "Africans" don't you?! There are 4 sub groups to that, Mbuna, dwarf Mbuna, Peacocks and Haps. All have different needs and stocking requirements.
Mogurako
Aquarium Advice Addict
Well you kinda have to know what you want to stock because the will change the stock number. IMO based on your tank Haps are out and I would only go with Mbuna or Peacocks.
a.tetreault
Aquarium Advice Freak
with mbuna you can keep quite a few, i have around 25 fish in my 75 gallon, give or take a few which may be removed as they grow to keep my male to female ratios good. you could do groups of lets say 6 or 7 fish of maybe four different species. some good examples would be yellow labs, red zebras, acei, maingano or johanni. some more aggressive species would be kenyi. any of these fish would give you lots of color. and then maybe a BN pleco. the key to keeping mbuna is to overstock to avoid aggression, but you must be prepared to keep up with water changes and provide a good filtration system. im not familiar with us gallons though, canadian gallons are bigger i believe.
