Overstocking/Introducing New Fish... ADVICE NEEDED

Egrant

I am getting ready to set up my new 125G so I have TONS of questions.
I have a 55G cichlid tank set up now and will be adding those 6 fish to the new tank (list below). After some research and after talking with the LFS store, over stalking seems to be a good way to keep the aggression down (plus looks good). Since I cannot go out and spend 500-600 bucks on 30-35 cichlids what is the best way to introduce new fish to the tank? I have been told to rearrange the tank decorations; this is a pain the butt with the river rocks I will be using? I was thinking of making sure I add at least 5 at a time so not one gets picked on.....
I hope this makes sense and I hope you all can help.




1 Labeotropheus fuelleborni
1 Red Zebra
1 Electric Yellow
1 Snow White Socolofi
1 Auratus
1 Convict

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Tazman

1 Labeotropheus fuelleborni
1 Red Zebra
1 Electric Yellow
1 Snow White Socolofi
1 Auratus
1 Convict

Do you know the sexes of these fish? The convict will have to be rehomed as it will not do well at all with those fish. You have some extremely aggressive fish there...BE WARNED YOU are going to need a lot more fish if you want to keep them all.

Egrant

I want to try and keep them, and when you say "a lot more fish", how many are you talking about?

Back to the original question of introducing new fish, like 5 - 10 at a time?

I know the Auratus is aggressive the others are as well?? Pretty sure they are all male, all have the egg spots. I had a cool Bumble bee but she got killed. I was able to keep 5 of her fry (now in a 10 gallon) hope to soon be able to put them into the other tank.

Thanks for the help

Tazman

OK, Here we go
1 Labeotropheus fuelleborni - Aggressive needs to be in a 1 Male to 5-7 Female ratio
1 Red Zebra - will crossbreed with the yellow lab (do not giveaway, sell, trade any fry from the tank)
1 Electric Yellow (needs to be in a group of 1 male to 4 female)
1 Snow White Socolofi (needs to be in a group of 1 male to 4 female)
1 Auratus (aggressive, needs to be a group of 1 Male 7 female or more - this fish alone has it in him to kill the entire tank within a small space of time)
1 Convict (will be stressed with the above fish)

Mbuna which is what all of these are except the convict, are harem fish.
All male can work but you would ABSOLUTELY have to have another tank setup and cycled ready to remove aggressive or injured fish and NO females of anything...it will be WW3 if you had a single female of anything.

If you do a fishless cycle using ammonia, then once the cycle is complete, you can add all the fish at once, which I would recommend doing with these fish.

You would be looking at about 20 - 25 fish max not including plecos if you wanted them also.

Egrant

Tazman, what are the leopard print looking ones you have?

Tazman

They are juvenile Placidochromis Milomo (Super VC-10'S) they are NOT compatible with any of your fish though except the yellow labs.

Attached Images

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Egrant

I thought these were all lake malawi's and therefore compatible. This fish stuff is confusing

Tazman

There are three groups of fish in Lake Malawi.

Mbuna which is what most of your fish are,
Malawi Haplochromines (Haps) which are what my VC-10's are.
Peacocks (Aulonocara) being an example.

The three groups are not always compatible with each other, Mbuna are too active to be kept with peacocks as they stress the more peaceful peacocks. mbuna are more aggressive than the large Haps and can stress them or become dinner for the haps.
Peacocks can be kept with Haps but you need a large tank for it to work, as many of the haps will outgrow a 75g tank, 125 or larger is best for them.

1077

I would use the 55 gal as quarantine tank for new fishes after adding the present fish in 55 gal a few at a time to the 125 gal.
Can borrow some filter material from the 55 gal along with some substrate in mesh bag to help establish bacterial colony in the 125 gal.

Tazman

You would have to be careful to only quarantine one type of fish at a time. Because of the aggressive fish you have, quarantining a mix of fish will cause a lot of aggression in a 55g tank.

Patience is going to be the key if you want to make this work with the fish you already have.