Colorful and active African cichlids would you recommend for a 50-60 gallon aquarium?

I’m wanting to get into African cichlids, and I know some of the basics (species only tank, higher pH, compatible with most other African cichlids). What colorful and active African cichlids would you recommend for a 50-60 gallon aquarium?

 

I’m wanting to get into African cichlids, and I know some of the basics (species only tank, higher pH, compatible with most other African cichlids). What colorful and active African cichlids would you recommend for a 50-60 gallon aquarium?

I'm not a big african cichlid fan, but it would be worth looking into setting up a male only peacock tank. They very colourful and would look amazing (I'd reccomend getting the 60g, ideally going for a 75 gallon so its full of space, more fish ect)

 

Mbuna's are cheap and a bit better looking IMO.

 

Check out Princess Cichlids. They are not brightly colored, but have beautiful subtle colors. You can start with just four or five, and soon you will have a colony of them.

 

Mbuna for that size tank. What are the dimensions?

 

fissh

 

mbuna are the type of African that would work best in a 60, I agree with fishandle. If you haven't bought the tank yet, bigger is better. What is the ph of your tap water? If it's 7.6 or higher your good. The whole trick to keeping mbuna is lots of filtering, lots of rocks and lots of water changes. A species only tank is only useful if your going to breed them, I find a mixture of colors to be a much nicer tank. It is a lot cheaper to buy 1" to 2" fish and there's a lot more variety available. Once you have your tank set up and cycled you can start putting in a group of at leased 6 at a time. In a 60 gallon 18 to 22 fish, in a 75 gallon 22 to 28 fish, and so on. Some of the mellower fish in the mbuna group are zebra types, afra, rusty, fuellebornI types. try to stay away from elongated fish, they tend to be more aggressive.

 

Ok, so now that I know I should go with mbunas, can I put plants, snails, or any crustaceans in with them? If so, what kinds?

Also, anyone know a good place online that I can order mbuna from?

 

Plants, snails and crustaceans will be eaten. I order from Live Fish Direct and imperialtropicals.com, but I am sure there are other places.

To keep aggression manageable, overstock and double your filtration and large water changes.

 

Yes, I would double the filteration of the tanks minimum. Like with my 150 mbuna tank I'm planning I'm getting dual fx6.( A little more then double, lol)

 

Tbh, I would much rather go with discus than cichlids, but I really don’t think I could give them the proper care and attention they need since I’m a junior in highschool.
Just to double check, cichlids don’t need pristine water like discus do right?

 

Tbh, I would much rather go with discus than cichlids, but I really don’t think I could give them the proper care and attention they need since I’m a junior in highschool.
Just to double check, cichlids don’t need pristine water like discus do right?

IMO most don't (discus are cichlids BTW)

 

IMO most don't (discus are cichlids BTW)

I had no idea that discus were cichlids.

 

I had no idea that discus were cichlids.

they definitely don't look like them! So are Angelfish!

 

Another question, can cichlids eat crickets? In the past, I seemed to be very successful in accidentally breeding any petsmart crickets that my lizards didn’t eat.

 

Another question, can cichlids eat crickets? In the past, I seemed to be very successful in accidentally breeding any petsmart crickets that my lizards didn’t eat.

depends on the cichlids size

 

My Electric Blue Acara enjoys the occasional small cricket.