Stocking numbers in a 55

[Wblaze]

I have a 55g with lots of rocks and @20 juvenile mbuna. I know when they gt bigger I will have to thin it out, but what is a good stocking number or the 55. People keep telling me ht crowing up to 25 is what I should do. For filtration I ave two aquaclear 70s.

 

[ezrk]

We have 9 yellow labs, 19 demasoni (plus an indeterminate number of demasoni fry), 1 peacock and 2 plecos living in our 55g. It is very heavily rocked up with a fair number of plants. They generally seem happy and spawn like crazy.

We change 60-70% of the water each week. We have an Eheim 2075 and a Rena XP2 for filters.

 

[Wblaze]

Wow -- What size are they?

 

[DiscusnAfricans]

What type of mbuna do you have? It could make a big difference. Some species have to be crowded to reduce aggresion, some can be stocked lighter without any issues. If you have multiple species, other considerations have to be accounted for.

 

[Wblaze]

OK -- I know I am mixing species so please do not judge, but my 2 yr old was picking the fish. 3 yellow labs, 3 ps. flavus, 3 ps. socolofi, 1 demansoni, 1 ob trawese, 3 electric blue, 1 red zebra, 3 bumble bee. There are a few small brichardi fry from my previous tank setup that moved with the gravel. When they get bigger I will bring them to the auction or make them available here

I think I would like to move three more ps. flavus into this tank from a smaller tank.

 

[DiscusnAfricans]

OK -- I know I am mixing species so please do not judge, but my 2 yr old was picking the fish. 3 yellow labs, 3 ps. flavus, 3 ps. socolofi, 1 demansoni, 1 ob trawese, 3 electric blue, 1 red zebra, 3 bumble bee. There are a few small brichardi fry from my previous tank setup that moved with the gravel. When they get bigger I will bring them to the auction or make them available here

I think I would like to move three more ps. flavus into this tank from a smaller tank.

No judgment, but you will have to make adjustments to make the tank function long term. One thing to consider is that you can't trust any offspring from this tank if breeding occurs. There are 8 species that all have the possibility to interbreed. Eventually the bumblebee, and probably the ob trewavasae, will get too big for the tank and have to be relocated. Its also possible the socofoli, zebra, and ahli will have aggression issues in that size tank. No issues if you plan to upgrade, but you may have to do some modifications if that will be the long term tank.

There will likely be conspecific aggression between the demasoni and the flavus. If you want to add more flavus I would recommend removing the single demasoni. Your best bet would be add more flavus and pick one other species to build another group of. The other option would be to remove any females in the future and go towards an all male tank, but all male mbuna tanks don't function as well as all male peacock or hap tanks.

In the end, 20-25 average sized mbuna would probably be fine in the tank, but the demographics will make a big difference. Maybe the 2 year old can pick out his favorites and the others can slowly disappear?

 

[Wblaze]

would the demansoni do OK in a 29g with three clown labs?

 

[ezrk]

would the demansoni do OK in a 29g with three clown labs?

a 29 probably isn't big enough for Demasoni. Our lab/demasoni tank is still a mix of sizes, but they are mostly approaching 1.5 years old so are fairly mature. 7 of the labs are at least 4"+.