FishProfiles.com Message Forums

I'm planning to start up a 55 gallon cichlid tank in the near future and I would like to know what is the ideal number of African cichlids I should get? It's going to be full of pretty big but flat rocks. any advice or suggestions would be appreciated.

60 Gallon: 4 Bala Sharks, Two Red-Tailed Tinfoil Barbs, One Golden Red-Tailed Tinfoil Barb, Two Silver Dollars, Four Clown Loaches, Three Giant Danios, One Zebra Danio, One Iridescent Shark, & One Plecostomus
55 Gallon: One Ornate Bicher

depends on the africans you get and how many of each. its more of a territory thing then a bioload issue.

not to get off track but looking at your signature i had to say something, your aware those fish will out grow that tank correct?

Any particular Africans interest you? If not you could look at these 55g cookie cutter setups to get some ideas.

Rocks are good...for Tangs a sand substrate is usually a good idea. pH and hardness have to be taken into consideration for Rift Lake cichlids.

~~~~~~~~~~~~
There is water at the bottom of the ocean

My Zebras are pretty easy to care for and rather colorful too! With african chichlids you cant put alot in, since they are very territorial.


Inky

i think the statement that you can just put a lot in was a little too premature yet. lets figure out what kind of fish they are thinking about and go from there.
for reference:
mbuna-10
haps-5
you have to be carefull though. alot of people say to overstock and i say only do it if you can do water changes very often. overstocked, you will have to do 2 decent waterchanges a week. i would only rec. overstocking if you have a very rambunctious group of mbuna. ie. demasoni, elongatus, kenyi etc...
i would not overstock haps. carefull which ones you get because a 55g tank is on the small side for africans. i would stick to one species of haps. find one type you really like and get one male and a few females. if conditions are good, you should have plenty of spawning going on.
with mbuna, alot depends on whay type you decide on. are you going to keep a variety? then get one of each type and set a limit of about 10 or so. mbuna species tanks are quite the sight and i highly recommend you go that route. acei make great fish for a 55g species tank. maybe go with 5 acei and a few yellow labs for a guaranteed easy to maintain, beautiful, & busy tank.

great suggestions with the yellow labs. and the acei, they are great fish and probably 2 of the least aggresive of the mbuna familly. the reason people suggest to over stock mbuna is that most are very aggresive and will constantly harrass the same fish over and over again. when you over stock you give the more aggresive fish more targets to go after so each fish gets picked on less. stocking mbuna is more or less trial and error but you should have no problems with the labs and acei.
good luck.


chris