Starting a Cichlid tank

I was starting a new Cichlid 55 gallon tank and I got a auratus, kenyi, and a yellow lab. I got rid of the auratus because I heard they were too aggresive. So I got another kenyI and a yellow lab. I'm now being told the kenyI don't match well with many other fish. So I guess I will take both of them back if that is a good idea? If so what other fish would be good to get! I want maybe a peacock or something blue! Any ideas! I wanna eventually get like 12 fish! I would really appreciate any feedback! Thanks!

 

Hiya
Glad to hear you're starting a cichlid tank. Looovvveee cichlids

I don't know about Kenyis personally, but a quick google shows they are very aggressive, so your advice on it not suiting many others is about right. However the yellow lab is a very good one to keep. They're a nicely coloured, peaceful fish that are great for a cichlid starter.

So really you have 2 options...
1. Keep the kenyi, return the lab, and instead of a cichlid community, just go for a kenyI specific tank. You could probably fit 10 kenyI in your tank, as long as you had a maximum of 2 males and the rest were females. (For gender aggression the m:f ratio is 1:3-4)

2. Keep the lab and return the kenyi. If you went this way, I would recommend buying 3 more labs and trying for the 1male 3female ratio.
You would then also be able to add some other more peaceful cichlids, probably 2 more species, with 3-4 of each species
A couple of species I would recommend to go with a lab... This is a copy paste of a list of more "peaceful" mbuna I researched when setting up my own community.

Pseudotropheus SaulosI - juvies are yellow, adult males blue


Pseudotropheus AceI - Blue with yellow fins - One of my favs. They benefit from being the dominant fish.


Rustys - Iodotropheus Sprengerae (buy me, I'm awesome!! Shamelessly plugging as I love this fish) - Start off a light yellow/orange and darken into a more rust colour with a violent sheen as they get older.


Peacocks: Multicoloured. Peacocks are a hit and miss. Their aggression varies hugely depending on the fish and hybridisation.

Cynotilapia Afra Cobwe - Can be highly gender aggressive Blue striped.


Red Zebra, M.Estherae - Range of red colours


Aulonocara Ngara Flametail - Deep blue with a red tail


Red Top Zebra (M.Greshakei) - Unsure about suitability. Can be very aggressive Light blue with yellow/orange fins etc



Please note the only ones I have personal experience with are AceI and Rusty (both of which would suit your tank perfectly). I'd highly recommend researching the others you're interested in or getting more advice from someone around here that has kept them

Hope my spam helps Good luck!

Edit: You may ask... why are all the links for cichlid forum? Because.... I am lazy

 

For almost all africans the male:female ratio is 1:4. You'll have problems with any of them, not just kenyis. You should aI'm for groups of 4-6 of each type of african. There's few cases where this isn't true.'

Aceis and labs = perfect together. If you have aceis you want to avoid fish that stake out territories because Aceis simply do not have the proper understanding. They don't even realize they're doing anything wrong and just get stressed out.

Another thing about africans is that you're best "overstock" the tank. In a 55 I'd go around 15-18 africans. Whatever makes you comfortable. This will help to ease the aggression a bit.

The suggestions above are great ones, just thought I would throw in some comments!

 

Thank you! This was a lot of help an the first time someone gave me some great feedback! I think I'm gonna stick with the labs and put some more of the other fish in and return the kenyis even though I love the look of them! Appreciate it! I wanna get two more labs cause I already have too but it's really hard to tell the difference in male and female. One of them have a really dark black line on the dorsal fin and the other one doesn't not and the one that doesn't has a white spot on the anus fin! Any Guesses on those?

 

They're almost impossible to sex when they're juvies. You'll have to let them mature.

 

And also do you have to get groups of 3 or 4 with one male or will most be fine if I just get 1 of each maybe?

 

4-6 is best. And yes, one male. They do best in groups...an african cichlid by themselves might stress out.

 

Africans need to be kept in harems, this cuts down on the aggression along with slight overstocking. I don't know about all of you fish, but when I was thinking of doing a afirican tank, we where going to do kenyis and bumblebee cichlids, we where told to do 6 of each in a 1 male/ 5 female ratio in our tank. There where other compatible fish suggested to us as well, give me a moment and I will try to link my thread for you to read through.

 

Kenyis and Bumblebees are great together because they're both slightly more aggressive than Yellow Labs and Aceis. ^^ Depends which direction you want to go.

 

Yes, just though I would add that as a option, although they won't go with the labs, they don't have to be in a spieces only tank. Here is my old thead

 

Yeah I'm so indecisive about which way I wanna go because I want to have a tank with a lot of color and diversity! So I guess I will just have to choose! Do any of the peacocks go well with the kenyis or no? And do you just pick randomly if you are getting juveniles when you only want one male and sex them when they are older? Because it seems to be too hard to sex any fish when they are young.

 

I was just thinking about this after reading about saltwaters I love the color and variety of saltwater but don't really want to put that much work into it. So thought maybe Ill just do a cichlid tank. thanks for the info

 

Do any of the peacocks go well with the kenyis or no?

Peacocks are pretty peaceful towards anything but their own species. They form territories and get 5 inches, which makes 40+ gallons nice for them. If you get one you'll want to let it have space to gain a territory. Any sort of Hap is recommended to not be kept with mbuna. However, there shouldn't be issues with peaceful mbuna like Labs or Aceis unless they try to invade his territory. Keeping them with something like a KenyI that also takes territories and are aggressive is asking for something to die.

And do you just pick randomly if you are getting juveniles when you only want one male and sex them when they are older? Because it seems to be too hard to sex any fish when they are young.

Exactly. You either get lucky or re-home the extra males.

 

Okay thank you very much! I'm glad I have some knowledge before I go back to store having no idea what I want! And I see a lot of the time in pictures of the peacocks being alone while other cichlids being in groups! Is this normal or does that stress the peacock out? Because I think I want to get two more yellow labs and then 4 aceis or some othe blue African Cichlid? And then maybe two different kinds of peacocks?

 

You'll want only one peacock in a 55. You could do a male/female pair of you didn't have mbuna with them. They like community tanks so they shouldn't stress out by being the only peacock with other cichlids in groups.

 

Okay that sounds good! And do you know of any other blue fish besides the aceis that would be a good match with the yellow labs or any other cichlids in general? No matter what color. I like the rusty Cichlid too from the looks of it!

 

Afra Cichlids are blue/yellow! Would be a nice contrast between the Yellow Labs and the blue of the Aceis. DemasonI cichlids too, though they have a higher 1:9 male:female ratio. :3

 

Alright! Thank you very much! Hopefully I can find these at some of the local fish stores! I will probably return my kenyis tomorrow and get some more labs and a few aceis or if I can find any others! I appreciate your opinion, it will help a lot!

 

I highly recommend Acei's. Fantastic fish, with such a pretty blue. Good thing about Acei's too is their teeth aren't too painful when they bite you ;P