Lee's MBUNA tank!

[Drifty]

looks great

[fr499y]

@Lee_k hows the tank looking now?

[Lee_k]

@fr499y - Thanks for asking! it was the nudge I needed to update the log

Wow - cant believe its been setup now for 9months! The fish are all doing well, colours look great (I think) and some are getting quite large (Acei's were looking at you)

Its going really well tbh, really enjoying the tank. Not too much in the way of changes other than the fish all getting bigger (and much more of them!!) - I also found some more spider web rock so I picked it up and switched it out for the other rock i'd added in so it all matches now (which I personally think looks better)

Stocking have exploded, babies everywhere!! - Maybe the rocks help break line of sight, but apparently there not a very good birth control - I think i've got at least double the Coral Saulosi babies (based on the fact there bright yellow), theres also now more trewavasae (nose shape is different than the others) and I think maybe Hara white top (based purely on the fact there little but striped...) - Obviously though they are MBUNA so they could be crosses of all 3!!

The Synodontis is getting too a good size too, although he refused to come out from behind the rocks for a photo!

Since its been running i've lost 2 of the females (dont know if there were flavus or hongi as plain silver) but no other losses I know of, and lots of gains!

I'll have to see if anyone local has MBUNA that wants some more numbers at some point if it carries on and as they get bigger i think or see if my local shop wants some (some shops wont due to being from a mixed breed tank).

Only thing I wish i'd done differently when setting up is maybe added some red in!

Anyway some photo updates:

Overall tank:







The male flavus... possibly eyeing up one of the baby saulosi - having probably learnt at this point he'll never catch it...



Trewavasae





Saulosi





I also grabbed a quick video tonight after feeding, which gives a better idea of size and constant movement you get with an mbuna tank

https://youtu.be/EonwFjByR5U

Thanks all
Lee

[Staffylover]

It's looking great, how cute is the baby yellow fish in the pic! Also surprised how big some of them are having only seen them in shops as juveniles, the colours are looking amazing you must be pleased with how it has turned out

[Lee_k]

Theres about 3 or 4 generations of them yellow saulosis! - They all start yellow, then males turn blue (or can stay yellow if no challenge for dominance) - I originally brought 6 (1 dominant male was blue - so 5 yellow), as you can see now, much more than that!

[Lee_k]

Another rock shuffle around over christmas break, also braved some vallis that I found when I redid the discus scape and didnt reuse in the discus setup so if they eat it or the hard water just kills it off i've not lost anything!





Tank boss



Biggest guy in the tank



Population control still not going brilliantly



Thanks
Lee

[Gingerlove05]

Once they figure out they can breed successfully theres no stopping them

[Lee_k]

I thought now some of them were getting bigger...and I added the catfish that i'd start seeing less - no so far!

I'm not sure what i'll do if they keep coming, theres 6 different species in there, so they could be mutts which rules out some of the fish shops!

[Lee_k]

Well, a bit sadly - final update for this tank.

So after some 18months - the mbuna tank has been shut down to be replaced with a new theme/project - but more on that in another thread.

After the time of pure fish science malawi food along with regular water changes I ended up with 36 fish (although 2 were very young fry) and some of very good size. The LFS actually commented they were possibly the biggest yellow tails they'd seen.

How I'd describe the tank setup in a word, "active" - maybe the most active tank you can get. Constant movement, chasing, rushing, begging....

My recommendations:

- Don't have too many different types or types hugely similar.
- Try to manage male vs female as best can.
- Rotate the rock structure every 3 month or so to reset territories

Warnings:

- They'll breed like crazy, obviously as they get bigger then a element of "circle of life" kicks in as the new fish find it hard to hide
- Agression can be a shock at first, but you soon realise the overstocking balances it out (It my 18months with this tank I think I lost 3 fish, 2 in the early days and one later one)

Would i recommend them - absolutely, once setup - there easy to keep, feed easily and give a constant splash of colour. They are however not any good for people who want plants/aquascape - its difficult to make a pile of rocks look amazing, depending on personal taste obviously (but its why I as much as i'm dying to have a go constantly put off marine, a well scaped tank to my eye, just looks better)

But on that note, a final set of photos:

2 photos of the overall tank, sum's up Mbuna tanks - yet its like someone coloured it in a different colour when no one was looking!





Then some of the fish:

Coral Salousi (female):



Flavus (male):



Malawi Squeeker:





White top afra (O hara):



Trewavasae:



Yellow tail acei:



And a quick 40 second clip of the tank:

https://youtu.be/zHWEJS2jYKs

ThanksL
Lee