55g African Malawi tank!

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JustOneMore20

JustOneMore20

Algae Fighter
Joined
May 30, 2006
Messages
3,872
Location
Birmingham, AL
I have a wild idea of making the empty 55g I have into an African Mbuna tank. I would like to keep Yellow Labs, Red Zebras, and maybe another type. I am still toying with the idea and doing some research.

My question is, what are some Mbuna friendly plants? Do they exist? I would like to have some plants in the tank, as I can't imagine a tank without them. I will shoot for around 2 watts per gallon.

I would use a kind of Cichlid substrate...maybe the Eco Cichlid substrate and have a lot of rocks, as well as plants.

This tank was going to be a planted tank with Rainbowfish as the centerpiece school, but I am in the mood for something different, since I will soon have a 4th planted tank.

Is a 55g big enough for Mbuna? Does anyone have any suggestions on plants? What about a 3rd type of fish?

TIA
Kristin
 
I have some plants in my Mbuna tank. I've had the most success with various types of vals, but anubias will also grow. The problem is two fold. 1) finding plants that are pH tolerant, and 2) finding plants that the cichlids won't dig up.

Africans tend to shuffle the gravel around a lot, and I've been frustrated more than once when I get some plants arranged in a way that I really like, and find them floating on the surface in the morning, with a bunch of smug looking fish.
I've seen one beautifully planted Mbuna tank, although the owner acclimated the fish down to a lower pH (7) rather than acclimating the plants to a standard Mbuna pH.

As far as other species to keep, I'd look at some Peacocks, or maybe Melanochromis johanni or pseudotropheus demasoni to blend some blues and blacks in with your yellows. Personal preference though
 
ive got some plants with my africans, mine dont dig around in the substrate that much tho, ive got a swallowtail peacock, iceblue zebra, 2 yellow labs and a few various tetras for schooling. Plants im using dwarf onions, babomba, java fern and another plant I cant remember substrate is 90%flourite with gravel at the bottem
 
Thanks for all the suggestions.

Thanks for the link, Menagerie. I have seen pictures of Travis's tank on here. It is gorgeous. I'm not going for that planted though. I have 3 planted tanks and another one starting soon, so I want this one to be lower maintenance. I could never pull off anything close to as nice as his!

So you can mix Peacocks and Mbuna? I wasn't sure. I have an onion plant (not a dwarf though), that I would love to get out of my 55g community tank. I can also get some vals, anubias, and java fern. Those seem to be the ones that everybody has luck with.
 
I'm still toying with the stocking. I know for sure I want the yellow labs and a group of Cynotilapia afra 'Cobue' because they are so pretty! But I can't decide on another group. Could I mix a type of Peacock with these two? If so, what species do you recommend? I'm trying to mix different colors and not repeat the same colors, so a type that was blue or red (or both) would be great.

I thought about getting Pseudotropheous socolofi since they are blue, but the females are yellow and I don't want to repeat colors...lol. Going for a good visual tank here! That's why I'm wondering about Peacocks.
 
Good...that's good. I read that they can't be kept together, but thought that some people do without problems. I just needed to hear it from someone's personal experience. Thanks!
 
but remember your experience my vary and also ive got my tank way understocked to allow good amounts of room, ive only got 5 lemon ice tetra's, 2 bloodfin tetras, 2 labs 1 iceblue zebra and the big daddy 5inch swallowtail in a 36 gallon bow
 
Oh yeah...I understand. And it probably has alot to do with the individual fish. Lots of fish of the same species can be totally different in the way they act. Sometimes you get a really mean fish!

I am going to try to decide on 3 Mbuna types. I will keep peacocks in mind though, just in case. I am trying to get 3 different color groups, to make it interesting, but you can't mix 2 types of Labidochromis or Pseudotropheus because they may interbreed...so its a bit hard. Also, I don't want any extremely aggressive types....lol. I still have more research and figuring to do. And the tank won't be set up for awhile. I have to save up to get all the equipment and a cannister filter, so I have time to research.

Thanks for the advice!
 
I've been dong the same thing....trying to figure out which mbunas to get. I've been looking at:

Cynotilapia afra (Cobue)
Labidochromis caeruleus (Yellow Lab)
Melanochromis cyaneorhabdos (Maingano)
Metriaclima estherae (Red Zebra)
Pseudotropheus saulosi

My GF is the one who wants the Labs. I would rather have the saulosi instead. I may have to bribe her....
 
Very cool maxwell. That sounds like a nice tank. Make sure you get some pictures on here when you stock it!

I really like Cynotilapia afra (Cobue) so I know they are definitely on the stocking list. I like labs, but I could lose them if I find something else that I like better. I do like Pseudotropheus saulosi and the females are yellow, so maybe I will have those instead of the labs...haven't decided yet. I also like Pseudotropheus socolofi...they are very pretty. I don't know what the females look like though...cichlid-forum only has pictures of males. I was told that Melanochromis cyaneorhabdos are pretty aggressive by someone who has kept them. I thought about adding those to my stocking list, but I'm going for a pretty peaceful tank...as peaceful as I can get with Mbuna.

I found some Peacocks that I like, but I'd rather go for all Mbuna, if I can choose what I want. Aulonocara stuartgranti "German Red" is very pretty. And so is Aulonocara jacobfreibergi "Eureka".
 
Same thing here. I like the saulosi, but the females look too much like yellow labs. And since you need to do a 1/4 male-female ratio, that would be too much yellow for me. The issue is that the GF insists in getting labs. Oh well...

I really like the Maingano and actually saw some earlier today, but my tank isn't ready for them yet. I am in the process of building a stand for it and I'm just about done, so I might be able to start adding some fish next week.
 
I thought about getting Pseudotropheous socolofi since they are blue, but the females are yellow
Click to expand...
I used to have a beautiful blue female socolofi. She raised some broods and passed away too early :(
Personally, I would stay with all of one type--Mbuna or Peacock. When I lived in Calgary, I met an incredibly knowledgeable cichlid hobbyist and he always said to keep them separated. He was a conservative cichlid keeper and liked to keep them the way they would be found in the rift lakes. Also, given the wrong mix of Mbuna and Peacocks, you will see the differences in temperament and how they deal with “chain of command.”
 
After getting loads of information and advice on this, I have decided to go with 3 types of Mbuna instead of mixing. I got some advice and experiences of people that keep mbuna and peacocks together and found that the peacocks may not be aggressive enough to hold up to the mbuna. They also have a different diet so it could be harder to feed them.

I have narrowed my selection down a little....I'm thinking of doing:
Yellow labs (1m/3f)
Cynotilapia afra "Cobue" (1m/3f)
Red Zebras or Rusty Cichlids (Iodotropheus sprengerae) or Pseudotropheus socolofi

I'm leaning more towards the Red Zebras or the Rusty Cichlids. I've heard Red Zebras are aggressive though, so I'm not sure about them. The Cynotilapia afra have blue/yellow/purple coloring, so thats why I'm leaning away from the socolofi. I need a little contrast.

I will be buying a light fixture and heater this week. I was going to setup my 38g planted first, but now I don't think I'll be able to set up both right now. I will be starting nursing school, so I won't be working as much. I will save the 38g for later on.

Any thoughts on my current stocking idea? Also, do any of you all have catfish in your African tanks? I was thinking about maybe 2-3 Synodontis petricola. Would they work or are the Mbuna too aggressive for them?

Thanks all, for the advice and suggestions!
 
It looks good to me. I have been doing a lot of research on Malawi cichlids as well. Even though my 55g is not quite ready, I picked up a 1M/3F group of Maingano (Melanochromis cyaneorhabdos) earlier today and put them in my 20g temporarily. The fish looked to good and too healthy to pass up. I will be moving them into the 55g next week. I plan on adding Yellow Labs and Afras myself. I just haven't figured out which Afras yet. I have a local breeder who has some Cynotilapia Afra Puulu (red top) fry that look pretty good.

The Labs and Afras are fairly peaceful species. I don't think adding Red Zebras will be such a bad thing. 55g is a good size tank for what you're planning to put in there. As long as you have enough rock/caves/hiding places you should be fine. The main thing is to trying to stay with at least a 1M/3F ratio. With 3 species, you can go with 1M/5F for a total of 18 fish.

As for the catfish question, you can pick up a couple of syndontis cats. They are rift lake cats that do well with rift lake cichlids.
 
I would like to get the Red Zebras because I know I can buy them locally. I'm not sure about the Rusty cichlids.

What kind of rock are you putting or do you have in your tank maxwell? I'm not sure what kind to get that will make nice caves.

I was told that the only Synodontis catfish that would be small enough for my tank would be Synodontis polli, which is a dwarf type of S. petricola. They are very rare though, so I'm sure I wouldn't be able to find them or afford them. S. petricola get around 5 inches, but I'm not sure if there would be enough hiding room for a couple of them.

I still have to get stuff ready to set up my tank...so it will be awhile before I actually get some fish. I plan on adding the labs first since they are the least aggressive.
 
The rock I have is some slate rock that I picked up along the side of the road in Virginia along I-81. :) Many of the pieces are flat which allows me to make caves, tunnels, and such. This fish seem to like it. This pic was taken earlier today. There's still some residual cloudiness form the PFS (even though I rinsed it pretty well), but you can get an idea of what I'm talking about...
 
Looks good! I have slate around here too....for free! I'd just have to go collect it. There is a place that my brother rides his 4-wheeler to around here that they call the "slate dumps"...lol. I really like the rounded rocks, but I'll have to see how much they cost. If they are alot, then I'm better off collecting some free slate. I didn't know how to go about arranging the slate, but now I see. I have some pieces but they are really flat, so I'll have to see about getting some bulkier pieces like that.

And you are using PFS...good to see. I am thinking about using that if I can't find Eco-cichlid substrate locally...which I'm sure I can't. The LFS around here don't have any good substrates.
 
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