"Mcfish" wrote in message
...
Toby,
I'm gonna chime in & be one of the opposites. I think your tank
sounds close to the size of a 30gal. long. If it is there's no reason
that you couldnt keep a small colony(6-10 fish) of Yellow Labs. Maybe
a few other fish as dithers & your preferrence tank is ready to go.
HTH

The Labidochromis caeruleus and other insectivorous Labid species are the
more docile of the Labidochromis. This excludes the L. sp "mbamba" and the
L. sp "hongi" species. The yellow labids in the wild, are usually found
solitary. Keeping more than one male, IMO would definitely be a recipe for
fin nipping, chasing and most likely death. Keeping 6-10 fish as suggested
would spread aggression out through over stocking which is a common practice
in keeping Mbuna. Whether over stocking is the way to go, is entirely up the
person keeping the fish, but less and less my choice as I learn more. Ad
Konings lists minimum size tank for this species to grow to full size as
only 15 gallons in "Back to nature guid to Malawi Cichlids", but recommends
a tank size of 40 gallons for keeping them in "Enjoying Cichlids". He
further states that if kept with any other Mbuna, an 80 gallon tank would be
better.
Tim