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r/Cichlid•
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Mbuna stocking advice needed

Afr | Help

We have a 55 gallon that's been running for over a year with 4 Yellow Labs, 5 Rusties, and 5 Acei. We recently broke down the tank to pull everyone out to vent and remove fry. After venting we found we had 1 Lab male vs 3 females, 2 Rusty males vs 3 females, and 4 Acei males vs 1 female. We pulled out 1 of the Rusty males and all the fry, but we're not sure what to do about the Aceis. They're close to full grown, so 5-6 inches each and seem to be causing aggression issues.

Our options seem to be:

  1. Remove the Aceis completely. But if we did that, we'd only have 4 Labs and 4 Rusties. I've always heard you should over stock mbunas, would that be under stocked? Should we add back in the 2nd Rusty male and try to find more females? Can you have multiple males of the same species if you have enough females?

  2. Remove 3 Acei males and try to find more females. Problem there being that the Aceis are all fairly large and I doubt we'd find any females nearly as big. Would they get picked on?

Posted Jan 24, 2020, 6:28 PM UTC

15
702Cichlid•

So the only thing that's probably protecting your female from being mated to death is competition between those males--which makes sense if that's where you're seeing aggression as Acei are pretty tolerant of an extra male or two in general.

If it were my tank, I'd try to source 2-3 female acei and then pull the extra males then. If you wanted to, you could even try to keep two males. If you pull the males before you have enough females, that one male is going to be able to chase and harangue that female without opposition.

Would they get picked on?

Typically after a 24-48 hour introduction period, most aggression goes away pretty quickly. They could get a little picked on initially, but you don't have anything too aggressive in that tank.

3
GeographerOP•

Thanks! If I do keep the Aceis, I'll make sure to add the females before removing the males. I would have probably done that the other way.

Acei aggression hasn't been an issue up until I removed the 2nd Rusty male, they were kind of stealing the show with fighting.

1
BewareOfBlast•

My English isn't t the best. However

Both Rusties and Yellow Labs are some of the more peaceful Mbunas. Having 2 Rusti males will allow the females to get a break and the aggression shouldn't be that bad between the males. The females will then distract the males just enough from themselves in my experience.

I currently have 2 male and 3 female Saulosi and from my experience Saulosi males are less tolerant to same species males compared to rusties. With that being said the 2nd Saulosi male isn't getting harassed to the point of me considering removing him. Just a small chase if he gets too close to the dominant Saulosi territory. He will just like your second Rusty male have less vibrant colors than your dominant male Rusty. So yes you can have multiple males, 3 being a good number but it REALLY depends on what kind of Mbuna we are talking about. An example is that having 2 male Demasoni, you have a high chance of one taking dominance and ending up killing the other. With 3 or more the Dominant male won't single out one of the subdom males.

Regarding your Acei. Males tend to grow bigger than females, so it shouldn't be any issue having females that are smaller than males. The key is that the females shouldn't be too small and you should have enough of them.

If anything I would trade in the Acei for something with more vibrant blue colors. If I were to stock a 55 I would stock with around 20 dwarf Mbuna species.

2
GeographerOP•

Thanks for the input! I had heard that Rusties were some of the more peaceful mbunas, and they have been for the most part, but recently the 2 males have been fighting almost constantly and have torn each other up a bit.

The Aceis are a good bit larger than the labs/rusties, maybe it would make sense to pull them out and add in a different species closer in size.

1
BewareOfBlast•

They are amongst the most peaceful. But Acei and Labs are much more peaceful I would say. So these rusties still comes out as top dogs in your tank.

1