Author Topic: Selecting Tankmates for my 4 tanks  (Read 4502 times)

Offline Hari

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Selecting Tankmates for my 4 tanks
« on: April 18, 2016, 05:51:20 PM »
Hi all,

I've attached a list of fish I have and I have drafted a plan for 4 different tanks (Three 55 gallons;One 40 gallon) using the fish compatibility knowledge that I gained in the last 2 months. Looking for some suggestions/feedback from the group members.

 

Thanks,
Hari

Offline Steve

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Re: Selecting Tankmates for my 4 tanks
« Reply #1 on: April 19, 2016, 11:40:35 AM »
Hi Hari, Tank # 2 and tank #4 I cant comment much on because I have not had many of the species you have for those tanks. Tank #1 you may have some aggression issues with. Kenyi and Damasoni are both ultra aggressive where as Labs and Acei are both the calmer species of mbuna. So you might end up with the Kenyi and Damasoni killing off the labs and acei.

Tank#3 looks pretty good. Only suggestion I have for that is to take out the red zebra. Zebras will crossbreed with anything they can get together with so you may find the zebra breeding with any/all those fish. Best to keep zebras in a species only tank so they don't end up crossing with others.
Better to have a short life full of what you like doing, than a long life spent in a miserable way.

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Offline Hari

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Re: Selecting Tankmates for my 4 tanks
« Reply #2 on: April 19, 2016, 12:04:12 PM »
Thanks for your suggestion Steve! Most of the Yellow Labs and all the Acei are fully grown adults. Will the smaller Kenyi and Demasoni still attack?

Offline Ava333

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Re: Selecting Tankmates for my 4 tanks
« Reply #3 on: April 19, 2016, 07:59:05 PM »
Sorry you had to pm me, I'm usually FULL of advice. Life has just been busy.

Ok, I will happily give you my suggestions, but at the end of the day these are your tanks. Before I joined this forum, I was told that I would never find Mbunas mild enough to be with any Peacock... And my tank has settled down nicely after fixing one issue.

I would put all your Hap & Peacocks in one tank and work towards an all male tank. I do not know if all the ones you have are compatible but you can research that. If it turns out that you have a breeding pair or trio in your juvies, you can TRY putting them in with the next two tanks listed, it might work. That also might be a good option for a male that looks too similar to one of your other males.

Tropheus are way more prone to bloat than anything else on the list so be careful who you house them with. The Acei's tend to be food hogs so my best GUESS would be to keep them alone or try them with the Greshakei (mine are pretty mellow) and maybe the albino socolofi. You might want to add 3 or 4 more Tropheus and soon cause they do better in groups of 10+, from what I've read.

The blue Dolphins, yellow labs, Acei, powder blue Socolofi, and the 1 Demasoni may all work together. You should be trying for 1M/3F ratio, or 5 females in a bigger species group, on everything in the tank EXCEPT the Demasoni. You might be way better off with just 1 of those.

You might could try the White Top Hara with some red zebras, both are spunky but the red zebras might be more so. You probably have more red zebras than you have space for, IMHO.

I had bad luck with Kenyi my first try because they were so aggressive and I can not give you any good advice on them. I ended up having to rehome mine by 2" in length. I would personally list them as the most aggressive Mbuna on your list.

This is probably not exactly what you were hoping for but it is the best I can do. Most of my experience is with Mbunas. Matching aggression levels can not be overlooked when stocking. Hope this helps.
« Last Edit: April 20, 2016, 10:08:57 AM by Ava333 »
Every fish needs a tank!❤️

Offline Hari

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Re: Selecting Tankmates for my 4 tanks
« Reply #4 on: April 20, 2016, 05:31:45 PM »
Thanks a lot Ava! Appreciate your help! I will send pics once its ready!

Offline Ava333

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Re: Selecting Tankmates for my 4 tanks
« Reply #5 on: April 20, 2016, 10:40:00 PM »
Awesome! I'm really interested to see how all this looks when you get it together. PM if I can help with anything.
Every fish needs a tank!❤️

Offline cswells212

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Re: Selecting Tankmates for my 4 tanks
« Reply #6 on: April 21, 2016, 02:07:38 PM »
IMHO way too many fish per tank. personal experience, I don't like to crowd that many but YMMV.
 If you can make it work and the fish are happy, by all means go for it! You obviously are doing the right thing planning out beforehand rather than just going to the store and buying willy nilly, so props to you.
I have had Kenyis and demasoni in the past, both were absolute terrors and vicious. Yellow labs are very mellow comparatively and easy to breed. Also had a white top afra that was a terror too, killed everything in the tank :(

sidenote: you can get away with that many as juvies, but when they start getting some size, do you have a plan for where to put fish if they get beaten up/too big/etc?

best of luck, let us know what you end up with.

Offline HMD

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Re: Selecting Tankmates for my 4 tanks
« Reply #7 on: April 21, 2016, 03:08:32 PM »
I know!!!! do like I am doing buy more tanks.
1100 gallons of tangs

Offline Ava333

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Re: Selecting Tankmates for my 4 tanks
« Reply #8 on: April 21, 2016, 09:49:19 PM »
Just food for thought: Your blue dolphins are gonna get pretty big. Have you thought about getting one bigger tank. Say 90 or 100 gallons? The Dolphins will need the extra room before they're completely grown... And a few of your milder species would enjoy the extra room with them.

MOST people with 55 gallons set it up with 2 or 3 species only, with a total number of adult fish around 18 (6" Mbunas, not 7 or 8" Peacocks), either all male or more females per species than males. I use the "1 or 3 Rule": either have 1 male per species or 3, never 2 because one will most likely kill the other. I found that rule didn't apply to my Acei though. They like to swim in the open in groups. I had 2M/2F and they did great except for getting fat. Edit: You can start out with more than 18 juvies,  and pull the extra males as needed.

In the long run, you might end up with less problems if you cut down the number of species you like and buy groups of the ones you like the most. Which ones are your "Must Haves"? Pick those then build the rest of the tank around those. Post them and I'll give you my thoughts if you want... And there's nothing wrong with an all male mixed Mbuna tank. Just be ready to rehome one or two if they don't work out.
« Last Edit: April 22, 2016, 10:51:45 AM by Ava333 »
Every fish needs a tank!❤️

Offline jkeeler

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Re: Selecting Tankmates for my 4 tanks
« Reply #9 on: April 21, 2016, 11:06:53 PM »
Hari,

Do you already own all these fish?  You are going to need more tanks and a bigger tank

Your haps are going to need a bigger tank (suggest 90 gallon)
The tropheus should be in their own tank and purchase 8 more.
You may want to reduce the Red Zebra population

As stated above, the best set-ups are limited to three groups unless you can manage to pull off an all-male Hap/Peacock tank.

Good luck


« Last Edit: April 22, 2016, 04:20:29 PM by jkeeler »

Offline Hari

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Re: Selecting Tankmates for my 4 tanks
« Reply #10 on: April 22, 2016, 11:43:37 AM »
Thanks all for your advice and suggestions:)

 
John - Most of these fish are in a 200 gallon indoor pond as of now. They have been doing well for over a month now. I will leave some of them in the pond if they don't do well in the tanks.