Making the big move

I have finally decided to give ALL of my mbuna to my LFS. No matter if they give me store credit or not. I prefer peacocks much more than mbuna, and I like the wide open rock scapes a lot more than the crowded mbuna.
List of fish I will be giving away:
1. Socolofi (albino zebra)
2. Cobalt blue zebra
3. 2 yellow lab
4. Red zebra
5. 2 electric blue johanni
6. Kenyi

fish I will have left
1. Electric blue hap
2. Apache sulfur head peacock
3. 2 dragon blood peacock
4. Eureka Red was peacock
5. Star sapphire
6. OB
7. 2 clown loaches
8. Pictus catfish
9. Rainbow shark
10. Bushynose pleco

Any tips on my new fish to get would be greatly appreciated

 

A school of Brachardi

 

A school of Brachardi

I’ve seen those at Petco. Look very interesting. They aren’t Malawi though, right?

 

I’ve seen those at Petco. Look very interesting. They aren’t Malawi though, right?

Lake Tanganyika. Peaceful like your Peacocks.

I breed them and they care for their babies, and even the older generation cares for the young of the next. So like uncles and aunts tend to the babies.

Mbuna and Malawi fish are just crazy, territorial and violent by comparison.

 

How big is your tank again Bciver?

 

How big is your tank again Bciver?

75G

 

Are you aiming for an All Male tank?
You might need to keep an eye on the Sulphur heads and the Dragon Bloods. Usually you want to keep one of each in an all Male Tank. If you are stocking with males and females, you should try for 1 male and 3 females of each kind. If it is 1 male and 1 female, the male may hound the female to death. But every fish is different. The sulphur heads and dragon bloods might be fine with each other.
Your Star Sapphire will outgrow that tank after a while.

Other fish you could look at that stay a little smaller:
Otopharynx Lithobates - (another fish with a sulphur head)
Placidochromis Electra
Red Empress
Flavescent Peacock or a Blue Neon Peacock.
Maybe one of the Blue Regals (Aulonocara Cobue or Aulonocara Koningsi Mbenji)

For a 75, I think I would aim at 12 fish. One of the real experts like A201 or MacZ could tell you better. My previous experience was with American cichlids. For Africans I have done a boatload of research, but my tank is still in the build stage.

With the loaches and cats, you might be pretty full already.

 

Ok, it's a 75... the problem I see are the other non-cichlid fish. They still have bioload and I agree with BigBeardDaHuZi (nice choices, btw!) , you are quite full with them. Biggest problem will be the clown loaches. How big are they already?

 

Ok, it's a 75... the problem I see are the other non-cichlid fish. They still have bioload and I agree with BigBeardDaHuZi (nice choices, btw!) , you are quite full with them. Biggest problem will be the clown loaches. How big are they already?

They are only about 2”. It will take them a few years to get big, right?

 

1-2 years. But as I can tell from the case of a friend who just had to get 4 of them (over 20cm) rehomed: It will take you months to find someone who takes them, as stores usually won't take the big ones.

 

Are you aiming for an All Male tank?
You might need to keep an eye on the Sulphur heads and the Dragon Bloods. Usually you want to keep one of each in an all Male Tank. If you are stocking with males and females, you should try for 1 male and 3 females of each kind. If it is 1 male and 1 female, the male may hound the female to death. But every fish is different. The sulphur heads and dragon bloods might be fine with each other.
Your Star Sapphire will outgrow that tank after a while.

Other fish you could look at that stay a little smaller:
Otopharynx Lithobates - (another fish with a sulphur head)
Placidochromis Electra
Red Empress
Flavescent Peacock or a Blue Neon Peacock.
Maybe one of the Blue Regals (Aulonocara Cobue or Aulonocara Koningsi Mbenji)

For a 75, I think I would aim at 12 fish. One of the real experts like A201 or MacZ could tell you better. My previous experience was with American cichlids. For Africans I have done a boatload of research, but my tank is still in the build stage.

With the loaches and cats, you might be pretty full already.

I think the star sapphire is a female. I think I am going to order from Tampa Bay cichlids. You can get a 2” guaranteed male for around $20. I’ll probably get a red empress, flavescent, Ngara flame tail, Ruby red, either a lemon jake or bicolor, red fin borleyi, tangerine tiger, lethrinops red cap.
All of these would have to come AFTER I re home all my mbuna. I am aiming around 15 peacocks/haps. I’m getting 2 new sunsun canisters to handle the bioload. I have also done a lot of research

 

1-2 years. But as I can tell from the case of a friend who just had to get 4 of them (over 20cm) rehomed: It will take you months to find someone who takes them, as stores usually won't take the big ones.

I only have 2 in the tank right now, 3 passed away due to ich in a separate qt tank. I will get one more so they are in a actual “school”. the pictus cat, I only have one, I think he is too big now (5”) to accept another pictus in the tank with him. He has lived his whole life as the only pictus in the tank.

 

Are you aiming for an All Male tank?
You might need to keep an eye on the Sulphur heads and the Dragon Bloods. Usually you want to keep one of each in an all Male Tank. If you are stocking with males and females, you should try for 1 male and 3 females of each kind. If it is 1 male and 1 female, the male may hound the female to death. But every fish is different. The sulphur heads and dragon bloods might be fine with each other.
Your Star Sapphire will outgrow that tank after a while.

Other fish you could look at that stay a little smaller:
Otopharynx Lithobates - (another fish with a sulphur head)
Placidochromis Electra
Red Empress
Flavescent Peacock or a Blue Neon Peacock.
Maybe one of the Blue Regals (Aulonocara Cobue or Aulonocara Koningsi Mbenji)

For a 75, I think I would aim at 12 fish. One of the real experts like A201 or MacZ could tell you better. My previous experience was with American cichlids. For Africans I have done a boatload of research, but my tank is still in the build stage.

With the loaches and cats, you might be pretty full already.

Yes I am aiming at a all male tank. If I re home the mbuna, there would only be 7(?) fish left in the tank, so that leaves me lots of flexibility and options as to what I would add next.

 

Clown loaches, I originally planned on 5 of them (2.5") for my African build, but based on advice from some members here. Decided on keeping them in another tank and went with 5 juvenile Synodontis lucipinnis.

Good Luck!