Lake Tanganyikan style tank?

Tazman

All male is fine for the peacocks provided you do not have any fish that look the same color.

With mbuna, it can work as all male but it is best if they are in harems of yes, 1 Male to 2-3 Female.

Assuming the tank is 55g then as I said 12 fish max for either the peacocks or the mbuna. If it is any other size then it drastically changes what you could potentially stock.

Is the tank bowfront or rectangular?

One way of finding out the size would be to get the dimensions of the tank. (Length, Width and Height).

Mbuna females will have color whereas peacock females will not. Both males will be colorful.

Feeding would be high quality flakes and pellets with the occasional treat of a few things...dependent on what you stock.

krish

hmmm... i think ill have to go with mbunas because the nearby pet stores dont have 12 different looking peacocks. i havent checked our LFS but i dont think theyll have them either. However, mbunas are really expensive! how do i get them cheaper?

by the way, the tank is rectangular, and it is 2 1/2 feet wide, but i don't know the height or depth.

Tazman

er, Houston we have a problem.

I need to know the full dimensions but 30" (2 1/2ft) just changes a lot of things. I suspect it might be 30" (L) x 12" (W) x 18" (H) in which case it is 29 gallons.

If this turns out to be the case NONE of the fish we have discussed, either mbuna or peacocks are suitable.

If you can find out the full dimensions in inches then it would be a great help before we proceed with this any further.

krish

no, its definitely more than 30. my family friend was able to fit like a bunch of angelfish in it. shucks. I have a 29 gal tank... he said his was bigger.

maybe it was deeper or taller or something. When his back gets better we'll check.

krish

yeah i think we should just assume it is 55 gallons, and keep going. So I can fit 12 fish, in groups of 1 male and 3 female for the pseudotropheus, the labs, and the cynotilapia, right?

Tazman

Assuming it is a 55g then yes, 3 species of maximum 12 fish in 1 male to 3 female ratio.

Anything smaller than a 55g and it WILL change the stocking, so once you know for sure, post it on here.

mollies

Well im going to contradict tazman. Just a little bit. Ok i have over 15 some where in at 17 African cichlids plus fry in my 55 gallon. Its a male an female tank. 1 male 3 females Yellow labs. 1 male 3 female Elongatus. 1 male 3 female Mangoni. 1 male 4 female Red Top Zebra. They all do just fine. The reson for over stocking a tank with African cichlids is to keep the aggression down.

I have over African cichlids in my 180 gallon.

Im not saying by any means just put 30 or 40 fish in at one time im saying you need to do your reserch on what fish you realy want to put in your tank. Just remeber that a lot of African cichlids are aggressive.
You will also want a lot of hiding spots for the fish. Like caves holes ect. You can acomplish this by getting rock lick you have mentioned above. I personly use LaceRock. You can buy it online a lot cheaper then at you LFS.
I get mine through Livefishdirect.com I also order my cichlids there to.

If you have questions just ask.

Sorry if i steped on any ones toes.

MOLLIES!!!!!

Tazman

Thank you mollies for your post.

I did not mention about the overstocking as the OP is new to cichlids and the ones I mentioned do not need to be overstocked.
Now if different fish were selected depending on the posters like...then perhaps overstocking would be an option. The fact that it is a 55g tank as well, a newbie so to speak, would be benefitted with the more peaceful species.

I do agree though that with some of the aggressive species overstocking is not only beneficial it is a must for some.

@Krish...what filtration do you plan on running on this tank?

krish

Oh yeah its quite good.

It's an EHEIM external filter (like those ones that you put out side the tank and you connect it in with tubing) I'm not sure what the model is, but it is a high quality filter.

I just dont want to have to clean the tank like three times a week. I normally do weekly changes and that works best for me.

krish

wait this filter IS good, right?
I read that external filters cannot support cichlid tanks.