Help me identify species and give me advice on if i need to change things up.

[JakeDoo]

OK, here we go.

75gal with a Tidal 70 and a tidal 110, Sicce stream fan, 150w heater. Air bar. New England field stone ( Gneiss and some other similar type stuff ) and malaysian driftwood. Sand for substrate. Tap water is 7.4 in PH. Im not 100% cycled yet for the bioload, so i'm doing 50% daily water changes, and bacteria supplement. maintaining 0.25 ammonia prior to change, 5-10 nitrate. Everything is going well. I've been maintaining a 20g Glofish community and a 10g shrimp and leopard from pleco tank for 6 months, and i've learned my water pretty well. I'm new to the hobby otherwise.

I purchased 12 African Cichlids, a medium driftwood catfish, and large pleco from my LFS. They did not educate me in regards to sex and species / type of cichlids. I think i have a handful of peacocks because they did say that. I have a livingston, and i think a mbuna. I have no clue really!!

Please see the attached photos, and give me an idea of what i have. The one splotchy blue/purple/pink/red fish, chases every other fish around the tank, He's not beating anyone up, just chasing. everyone else seems cool except the blue / silver / red one seems to kinda be chased by every fish i the tank. The small blue one with the yellow top fin, hides by the filter. I'm assuming because he's small and sick of being chased around. He's not beating anyone up, just chasing. Is this aggression going to get worse? I intend on purchasing another 6-8 or so, to overstock the tank a little. ( i think 20 in a 75g is that number, right? )

Do i need to specifically purchase more females? more of a specific species?


I'm looking for ALL input / suggestions here, because my LFS didn't educate me enough, and i've read a lot and watched a lot of videos, but now it's time to ask questions. So i know some stuff now, but not enough. I need to learn more.

Be nice to me!!!!

Thanks everyone,

Jake

 

[Jim Anderson]

Welcome to the club, lots of great helpful members with a wealth of knowledge. I don’t believe your LFS set you up for success with the above combination of fish. The large pleco is not typically seen in a set up like this- they prefer different tank mates, water parameters and habitat. Your tank set up is typically for mbuna and can work for haps until they get bigger-the haps tend to like open water space When larger. Enjoy
you have a mix of everything:
2x mbuna ( pics 4 &8)
3x haps (pics 2, 5 and 10)
6x peacocks (pics 1, 3,6, 7, 9, 11)

 

[JakeDoo]

Welcome to the club, lots of great helpful members with a wealth of knowledge. I don’t believe your LFS set you up for success with the above combination of fish. The large pleco is not typically seen in a set up like this- they prefer different tank mates, water parameters and habitat. Your tank set up is typically for mbuna and can work for haps until they get bigger-the haps tend to like open water space When larger. Enjoy
you have a mix of everything:
2x mbuna ( pics 4 &8)
3x haps (pics 2, 5 and 10)
6x peacocks (pics 1, 3,6, 7, 9, 11)

Jim i appreciate your response and information..

Do you have any advice on what moves i can make? Specifically, what do i add? do I overstock to try to get the chasing to relax? They don't seem to be fighting, but i assume as they get older / larger i may have a bigger issue?

I did notice the mbuna are the only ones in the rocks really. I just put in a bunch of rocks from my woods. Home used to be an apple farm so we have lots of loose stone walls around here. I checked each rock for type, as to not screw up the chemistry. I can certainly remove some to open the tank back up some for the haps.

The Pleco was in a cichlid tank at the showroom, with 3 others, and a dozen or so large cichlids and silver barbs. He seemed to be doing well there, and also here. Really he seems to be thriving. Do you really think he will become an issue?

The LFS I'm dealing with is pretty high end, they do lots of custom installations, service contracts, etc. They have a serious supply of fish, and in my estimation a million dollar show room. So I wasnt' at a mom and pop shop, per say. All the young cichlids are in large tanks grouped together by size only. I was just picking out the cool looking fish that fit my budget, and the dude helping me didn't mention a word about a mixed tank. Just kept bagging them up. I went back once i learned about the different types, and he told me they mix their tanks with no issues. So of course, as usual, everyone has their opinion and I have no idea what's really right.

I mean, i own a mixed tank now..... so, let's see if I can make it work? It's not typical or ideal, but here we are... I've seen folks talk that mixed tanks can work, with proper adjustments.

Thanks again Jim!

 

[lock jaw]

What is your LFS and what area are you in? Does your LFS allow you to return or exchange fish?

From my experience, mbuna do get aggressive, they could kill your other fish or stress them out. I used to have a mixed tank like that when I started out, it was fine for a year or so then I started finding dead fish, lots of fighting, etc..

As Jim said Haps grow to be big. Usually people will stick with one of the 3 species, like I have an all Peacock tank. The yellow lab is not that aggressive and it can be kept with peacocks and haps.

I would advice against keeping females.. An all male tank would be ideal. If you do see fish holding (babies in their mouth), you should rehome the female or move to another tank and grow out the babies. Having a female in the tank will make all the males in war mode all the time.

Males are usually colorful, while females are of a dull color, but at times males do not color up till they are 4-4.5 inches. Sometimes, if they are stressed too much they may never color up. So you will just have to wait and see.

There are members in the forum selling fish, it might be cheaper to buy from them then at the LFS. Plus you would know that you are buying a male.. Try to buy fish around the same size.

The pleco could be fine, but I would keep an eye on its fins. Cichlids will nip on them. You can find syno catfish they do well with African Cichlids if you want a bottom dweller in your tank.

 

[JakeDoo]

What is your LFS and what area are you in? Does your LFS allow you to return or exchange fish?

From my experience, mbuna do get aggressive, they could kill your other fish or stress them out. I used to have a mixed tank like that when I started out, it was fine for a year or so then I started finding dead fish, lots of fighting, etc..

As Jim said Haps grow to be big. Usually people will stick with one of the 3 species, like I have an all Peacock tank. The yellow lab is not that aggressive and it can be kept with peacocks and haps.

I would advice against keeping females.. An all male tank would be ideal. If you do see fish holding (babies in their mouth), you should rehome the female or move to another tank and grow out the babies. Having a female in the tank will make all the males in war mode all the time.

Males are usually colorful, while females are of a dull color, but at times males do not color up till they are 4-4.5 inches. Sometimes, if they are stressed too much they may never color up. So you will just have to wait and see.

There are members in the forum selling fish, it might be cheaper to buy from them then at the LFS. Plus you would know that you are buying a male.. Try to buy fish around the same size.

The pleco could be fine, but I would keep an eye on its fins. Cichlids will nip on them. You can find syno catfish they do well with African Cichlids if you want a bottom dweller in your tank.

I live in Connecticut, and i've been going to Ocean State Aquatics in Rhode Island. Not too many higher end fish stores around here. Petco's and stuff is kinda it. I have to drive an hour to get there.

The LFS actually had syno catfish in with their cichilids as well. I went with the pleco because it was larger... These guys really just let me pick what i wanted, even when i was asking them to educate me and set me up for success. They just seem to have whatever the hell they want in tanks. Maybe theyre willing to assume the risks / mortality that comes with it... so they can sell me more?

Mail order, for sexed male's only may be in my future, I"m thinking.

I feel like now my tank is all effed up, haha. Learn through pain.


This might be my plan of attack:

1: Pay attention to the pleco and see if these guys are bothering it. So far, i know they aren't. Harmony is high. Pay attention for females, although i don't believe any of these fish are quite mature enough yet. Maybe one or two at most.

2: Less rocks, take a couple out.

3: order sexed male peacocks online ( LFS prices are almost double anyways, so i was getting yanked a little there too. Basically not so happy with LFS ) Mike's Cichlids seems mentioned here on this site a lot and they seem to offer the right size sexed males i'd want.

4: removed known females as i find them.



The yellow lab and the albino fish are Mbuna, from what Jim said, right? I believe the albino is just an albino lab? Those being my only two Mbuna, maybe i can get away with it?

So besides color, is that the only way to know male / female? When you say color up, do you mean essentially zero color just greys / blacks / silvers? or do you mean like, go from having "some" color to lots of color? Clearly i have some grey / silver no color fish.... cause they were in the cheap tank, and i wanted numbers to start rounding out the tank. Gee, wonder why they were cheap.... Dude didn't tell me they might be females.

How many male peacocks should I order, to round out this tank as it sits currently, to bump the stock level. I have 12... in a 75. Do i want 6-8?

Since I currently have these 12 in the tank, would you specifically be sure to get rid of anything, right now? I do believe the LFS will do an exchange for credit. I'm assuming i'll lose something....

Any steps i should add to my immediate plan of attack?

I'm sorry for all the questions. The internet is full of so much info an opinions, I can't quite seem to disseminate everything.

 

[lock jaw]

Well there are a lot of pet stores with employees that are not knowledgeable about what they sell or they know and just want to make a sale. Either way you can prepare yourself by reading about African cichlids and watching videos on youtube. Lots of free information.

With the Mbunas, I am not sure if that is an albino Lab. If you are going to lose money either way, you can keep them for now, see how they do and sell them later.

Your plan of attack looks good. I think you can keep your rocks in the tank for now, I would change the layout every two weeks, maybe during a water change. Just so that, a single fish will not claim an area of your tank as his territory.

You should be fine with 20 fish in your 75 gallon tank as long as your filters can handle the bio load produced. I used to keep more than 20 but I was running a sump and fx6 on a 75 gal tank.

It is hard to tell African cichlid males from females, when they are young, sometimes a male will have nice color but females tend to be dull, meaning gray or dark.. When they are young all of them are grayish. lol It varies on species too, there are colorful females in mbunas and others.

Sites:

• Mikes Cichlids (Florida) - Is a great store, I have bought fish from them before. (https://www.mikescichlids.com/)
• Super Cichlids - They sell fish food and merchandise, they do not mail live fish. (https://www.supercichlids.com/)
• Dave's Rare Fish - They provide a stock list, you can also call or email them and ask what males they have. (https://www.davesfish.com/)
• Imperial Topicals - This is another very popular fish site, they have plenty of fish available. (https://imperialtropicals.com/)
• Snake River Cichlids - These guys have a lot of OB and hybrid varieties, worth looking through (https://snakerivercichlids.com/)

You should decide what type of species you want to keep. If its peacocks then I suggest only buying Lake Malawi peacocks or OB's going forward. You can add Haps, but they do grow big and will eventually need a 125 or bigger tank.

 

[JakeDoo]

Thanks, i appreciate the input. I'm going to do more video watching, but seems like i'm grasping at least where to start. Cheers!

 

[lock jaw]

Try to keep fish with different colors and patterns. Males tend to pick on other males that look similar to it. All the best!