29 gallon mbuna tank

Hi everyone!

I currently run a 29 gallon high tech planted tank that has been very successful, but I have been thinking about converting it into a mbuna tank. My 8 month old son doesnt care how well my plants are growing, he just wants to watch fish!

Im not new to aquariums by any means, i have done a variety of fresh and reef tanks. I just dont have any experience with mbunas. I was thinking 6 or 7 mixed mbunas in there with plenty of rockwork. I have a aquaclear 70 filter which should be more than enough for the heavy load. Changing 50% of the water is not a big deal either, as I currently do that with EI dosing.

Does 6 or 7 mbunas seem like an ok plan?

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Permalink Reply by Peter on September 27, 2012 at 6:49pm

It's better to have 1 male to 4-5 females. The aggressive nature of the male to reproduce with the females usually kills them so its better to have more females and a cave for each female soooo if u can't provide that just get a smaller grp like 1 male n 3 females. If u get 2 males they will kill each other over tank space.... As they get older they get more aggressive it's better to research a lot more b4 u get the fish. On a side note if your son likes watching fish just swim get some guppies those swim all over the place and u can get a few an they will turn to a lot in a matter of weeks

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Permalink Reply by Mike F on September 27, 2012 at 9:23pm

Thanks for the input!

I was wondering if any other mbunas are as easy to sex like the Kenyi cichlids? Would I be able to have lets say one male of a specific species, then a few females of other species?

To be honest, it was this tank that brought me here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_GTxP6Fp6s&feature=related

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Permalink Reply by Vinh Nguyen on September 28, 2012 at 12:45am

The trick with Mbunas is getting the right gender. A 29g is a little small for alot of male Mbunas... You seem to have done your research too which is good. 1 male to -5 females is a good start and you probably dont want to pass 7 fish. Mbunas are NOT easy to sex and the only sure fire way is to "Vent" them. Luckily for you Mbunas are Monomorphic so the females look just as good as the males. Remember Mbunas are really agressive so have lots of hiding spots. always good to overfiltrate your tank. enyi cichlids are some of the more agressive of the Mbunas so I dont really reccomend those. Yellow Labs are great as are the Acei. Red Zebras are ok. I wouldnt add any bumblebess or johannis.

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Permalink Reply by jackson hutchison on September 28, 2012 at 7:02am

You could go with yellow lab cichlids. A little bit less aggressive than the average mbuna, and at about 4 inches, their a smallish cichlid. I would keep a group of 2 males and at least 4 females with a colony of multis shelldwellers. The difference between male and female yellow labs is that males have black ventral fins and females don't