Compatability

[garywildman]

Hi everyone,can someone give me a bit of advice please.I have,at the moment 4 beutiful Venustus in my vision 400 & i have a chance of obtaining 4 Metraclima estherae,approx 5inches.Would they be compatable with the Venustus,& if so,how agressive would they be ?

 

[SubMariner]

Depends how big the Vinny's will be...

 

[fischfan13]

Just my opinion...

Having four adult Haps and adding four adult "aggressive" Mbuna could lead down the road to having four fish left in your tank.

 

[SubMariner]

Well it's all relative to the size of the tank and the size of the Venustus. Without a doubt, the Nimbochromis have to be larger than the Mbuna, otherwise say bye bye to your Vinny's. LOL!

 

[Tony]

My 8" tank alpha venustus in the 180 maintains a very impressive collection of fresh wounds on his side thanks to the 7" male zebra in there with him.

 

[garywildman]

Thanks to all that replied,i quess i'll leave the zebra's alone.

 

[davidhusker]

What is a vision 400? I think it could possibly work, I just think the Zebra's may be too big and too aggressive. If the Venustus are bigger, they are slower, if they are smaller, then they aren't as tough. So it's sort of a no, but I've had success (some) having smaller mbuna with haps.

 

[Tony]

What is a vision 400?

I think 3 people have asked him his tank dimensions on his previous threads without a response. This info would really help answering his questions.

 

[garywildman]

My Vision 400 is the Juwel 450 litre,( 151 x 61 x 64 cm ).I would love to have a bigger tank,but my living room is too small.

 

[davidhusker]

450 litre = 118.877424 US gallons
5 ft tank

What all is currently in the tank? Just 4 venustus?

 

[DiscusnAfricans]

Theres definitely plenty of space to add more fish if you have 4 venustus in ~120 gallons of water. You just have to be careful about your selection. Venustus get big, and can be somewhat aggressive, but aren't murderers for their size. You want to add fish that will get almost as big or bigger, but aren't too aggressive. Blue dolphins (Cyrtocara Moorii) or VC-10 (Placidochromis milomo) would be good options and are somewhat readily available. Most mbuna, other than bumblebee, that get bigger than 6" will likely be trouble if you add them to the tank. The smaller ones would eventually be eaten most likely.

 

[McFluffrichromis]

I have a 110gallon XH with: (Dont check my spelling!)

2 venistus (4" and 8")
2 livingstoni (4" and 6")
15 Julidichromis Marlieri (.25"-3" +babies)
2 Neo Brichardi (2" and 3" +babies)
3 Cyrtocara moorii (3", 8", and 5")
1 Red Zebra 4"
3 peacocks (2.5", 3", and 3.5"
2 Mono Sebae (4" and 6")
2 Red Fin Borlei (6" each)
1 Exo (4.5")
2 yellow labs (3" and 4")
2 Socolifi (3"each)
1 Pleco (10")

My theory is you can have whatever you want in a tank as long as you crowd and have a spare tank for quarantine. It takes trial and error. And as long as you watch the tank closely in the beginning when you are starting to mix than you will be fine. You need to have lots of filtration.

 

[garywildman]

I di have 4 Venustus,but the big male just killed the little female,so now ive only got 3. 1 Male approx 8in..1 male approx 4in..1 Female approx 6in. The big male keeps trying to mate with the female.

 

[Tony]

You need to either change your ratio or add more fish to that tank with the quickness. Your big male will continue to whoop up on the female and subdom male and will eventually kill them. Throw in some "target fish" to take some of the heat off the other two venustus... other sturdy haps or mbuna of similar size.