A Kenyi, an Mbuna, and a Pleco walk (swim?) into a tank...

[Hawkmoon2001]

My existing 20L has a striped bumblebee Mbuna, a striped blue Kenyi,
and a small Pleco. The Kenyi is somewhat younger, and therefore
smaller, than the Mbuna. I am cycling a new 55Gal tank right now
(currently being helped along by a few 60 cent "zebras"), which will
be their new home shortly. When that time comes, I will be adding some
more fish to the tank. However, the yellow Mbuna is extremely
aggressive. He gets seems to enjoy chasing the smaller Kenyi around on
occasion, as well as terrorizing, but not hurting, the pleco. This has
been like this for a couple months, so there's no harm coming out of
it. He has his territory defined on one side of the tank, and the
Kenyi has his on the other.
Recently, the brown algae in the tank has been growing exponentially,
more than the pleco can handle. So, I thought I'd throw in a CAE.
Well, that was a good idea until it became lunch for the Mbuna about
an hour later. All that to say: What other varieties of fish can I add
to the new tank once it's established? I'm primarily worried about mr.
Mbuna eating/attacking anything remotely smaller. I guess I should
stick to fish the same size or larger eh?

[Hawkmoon2001]

The Madd Hatter > wrote in message >...
> It would help to know what type on mbuna it is.... Mbuna is a term
> that means, "rock fish" I believe... it describes a wide variety of
> Lake Malawi Cichlids, that reside in the Reefs, and are primarily
> herbivorous... This list includes Kenyii...

Interesting.. they were in two different fish tanks at the petstore,
one labeld "Kenyii" and the other labeled "Mbuna". Oh well. The bottom
fish in this picture is the blue/black on I'm referring to as my
smaller Kenyi:

http://badmanstropicalfish.com/rift_valley_cichlids/lombardoi1.jpg

My big Mbuna looks like this:

http://web.mit.edu/lxs/www/cichlids/images/bumblebee-mr-b-4.jpg

Thanks!

[The Madd Hatter]

Though I agree that the Crabro is a pretty aggressive fish, I think a
5" Kenyii would be morethen a match for a 8" crabro... The Kenyii in
my experience is way more agressive... I happen to have a trio of each
w/ an 8" crabro male and a 4" kenyii male... The crabro tends to be
aggresive to its own kind, while the kenyii is just an over all
killing machine...

Ofcourse its a moot point since you are correct in stating that they
wouldn't really mix too well in a 55 gallon tank once they are full
grown...

On Thu, 24 Jul 2003 13:10:20 -0400, Rich Conley
> wrote:

>
>
>Hawkmoon2001 wrote:
>
>> My existing 20L has a striped bumblebee Mbuna, a striped blue Kenyi,
>> and a small Pleco. The Kenyi is somewhat younger, and therefore
>> smaller, than the Mbuna. I am cycling a new 55Gal tank right now
>> (currently being helped along by a few 60 cent "zebras"), which will
>> be their new home shortly. When that time comes, I will be adding some
>> more fish to the tank. However, the yellow Mbuna is extremely
>> aggressive. He gets seems to enjoy chasing the smaller Kenyi around on
>> occasion, as well as terrorizing, but not hurting, the pleco. This has
>> been like this for a couple months, so there's no harm coming out of
>> it. He has his territory defined on one side of the tank, and the
>> Kenyi has his on the other.
>> Recently, the brown algae in the tank has been growing exponentially,
>> more than the pleco can handle. So, I thought I'd throw in a CAE.
>> Well, that was a good idea until it became lunch for the Mbuna about
>> an hour later. All that to say: What other varieties of fish can I add
>> to the new tank once it's established? I'm primarily worried about mr.
>> Mbuna eating/attacking anything remotely smaller. I guess I should
>> stick to fish the same size or larger eh?
>
>Bumblebees....aka ps. Crabro are pretty aggressive, especially when theyre
>the biggest fish in the tank. My issue with your setup is this. The
>bumblebee will get to 8" or greater, and your kenyii will get to 5. The
>kenyii will be fine in a 55..if your lucky..they do better in 6 foot
>tanks. My advice, get rid of the bumblebee, buy about 10 more
>kenyii...mostly female, and about 10 of another type of heavily aggressive
>mbuna, like red zebras, or johanni, or auratus..or something like that.
>The Crabro simply is too big and aggressive for a 55

[Hawkmoon2001]

The Madd Hatter > wrote in message >...
> Though I agree that the Crabro is a pretty aggressive fish, I think a
> 5" Kenyii would be morethen a match for a 8" crabro... The Kenyii in
> my experience is way more agressive... I happen to have a trio of each
> w/ an 8" crabro male and a 4" kenyii male... The crabro tends to be
> aggresive to its own kind, while the kenyii is just an over all
> killing machine...
>
> Ofcourse its a moot point since you are correct in stating that they
> wouldn't really mix too well in a 55 gallon tank once they are full
> grown...
>

Thanks. I sold the Crabro back to the fish shop and picked up some
smaller Kenyii's..