Mbuna Candidates For Yard Tub?

[Sonny Disposition]

Hi all. Paul's pond post got me thinking.

One of the ideas I've been kicking around is putting some mbuna outside. If you built a rockpile in the tub, it would serve as a great substrate for growing algae, perfect, I would think, for grazing mbuna. However, the high summer temperatures here might be a problems for some species.

Can you cichlid people think of a species that would be able to withstand high Silver Spring summer temperatures?

 

[George]

If the container is a decent size and doesn't sit in the sun all day I really can't think of any Rift Lake fish that wouldn't survive. It might be tough on some of the deeper water things like Frontosa but I suspect they would still make it. All the Mbunas should be fine. I knew a guy in Chicago that kept them outside in the summer and Chicago gets HOT in the summer.

Sounds like fun. It's starting to sound like it may be fun to compare notes this summer. I have four tubs planted and outside already waiting for fish. The plants are doing fine. Some of them wintered in the plastic tubs.

George

 

[dogofwar]

I tried this with a ~200g in ground pond in Sacramento with mixed results.

I started with a group 3/4" Metraclima zebra (Chilumba) fry (about 20-30 from a spawn)...and over the course of the summer (May - Sept in California) they grew to about 1.5"...and (I think) all of them lived. I brought a couple of dozen of them (that I could catch - not easy!) to the LFS for credit as fall approached.

Some problems:
- It was hard to see them
- They didn't experience really rapid growth or extravagant colors
- The pond was kind of hard to clean (vs. koi and goldfish that won't get sucked up)

Sacramento gets HOT (110F in the summer) but cools off at night (~55F), so I don't think heat will be an issue here.

 

[longstocking]

A few years back there was a member of our club ( no longer keeps fish ) that did something like this but with tanks outside ( it was an experiment). Infact Julie has done this with tanks as well in the past. The results were good from what they both told me. Super fast growth and great colors. Heat is not an issue... the cold is.

I think the old member said mbuna did fine till they got into the 50's ... Julie tried this with new worlds I think.

 

[SubMariner]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Sonny Disposition @ Apr 29 2008, 09:23 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>

Hi all. Paul's pond post got me thinking.

One of the ideas I've been kicking around is putting some mbuna outside. If you built a rockpile in the tub, it would serve as a great substrate for growing algae, perfect, I would think, for grazing mbuna. However, the high summer temperatures here might be a problems for some species.

Can you cichlid people think of a species that would be able to withstand high Silver Spring summer temperatures?[/b]

I would say something South American, they can handle heat.

 

[Sonny Disposition]

Hey, thanks, all. I may try this. If they can withstand high heat, the summer algae should be great for them to graze on.


<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (longstocking @ Apr 29 2008, 03:52 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>

A few years back there was a member of our club ( no longer keeps fish ) that did something like this but with tanks outside ( it was an experiment). Infact Julie has done this with tanks as well in the past. The results were good from what they both told me. Super fast growth and great colors. Heat is not an issue... the cold is.

I think the old member said mbuna did fine till they got into the 50's ... Julie tried this with new worlds I think.[/b]