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I have a 46-gallon bowfront stocked with baby Tanganyikans. (Don't worry, I will upgrade this tank as the little guys grow.) The tank is aquascaped with 18-20 large rocks so there are plenty of hidey-holes.

Currently I have a compressiceps, a calvus, a leleupi, a brichardi, a frontosa, and a julie marlieri. All around 2" Somewhere along the way I accidentally picked up a demasoni from Lake Malawi. The demasoni seems to be growing faster than the others and is about 3"

Just recently I've noticed that he has been terrorizing the Tangs. All of the Tangs were crowded at either end of the tank with the demasoni dominating the entire middle.

I tried adding a school of zebra danios to distract the demasoni, but his focus on the Tangs never flickered.

I thought I could help by rearranging the rocks and shaking up the demasoni's territory a little, but that has backfired. Now the tangs have lost what little territory they had and are hovering above the rocks behind whatever filter or heater equipment they can find and demasoni rules over all the rocks.

Obviously I need to trade in the demasoni, but I really want to find a similar looking substitute. I love demasoni's colors. My lfs has suggested an afra, saying that the color and size is similar but with a better temperament. I'm a little wary of choosing another Malawian. Is an afra a good option?




Last edited by zoeandmaia at 22-Aug-2005 09:42

I'd stay away from Malawians in general. There aren't many particularly blue Tangs, but then you're fairly stocked as is - that's a lot of rockdwellers for a fairly small tank.

Wait - a Front? I realize you plan to upgrade, but this guy A) should be kept in a group; they're colony fish, and B) will be able and willing to eat most of your current stock once he's grown.

All in all, I'd recommend upgrading the Front and a group of other Fronts to a 150 gallon or larger tank, perhaps with the compressiceps (you definitely want to split up the comp and the calvus; they can interbreed). Leave the others in the smaller tank, and hope they don't go a bit nuts growing up; singletons can be very unpredictable, but there's not really room to pair them off. Watch out for hybrids, particularly leleupi/brichardi.

Last edited by LittleMousling at 22-Aug-2005 16:25

-Molly
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I second all of the above

If you want either Demasoni or Afra's I'd wait til you upgrade tanks then get one or the other.....

Either one would be alright in your tank, but you could only have say 4-5.
Plenty of rock work you should be o.k

But definately no Malawi's in your Tang tank. They just don't mix well

i agree too. no malawi's in that tank. you have some pretty shy rock dwellers that the malawis will constantly pick on.
you could.......get another tank. you know you wnat one!!!

Okay, I took the demasoni back to my lfs. I was sad to lose him, he was a beauty. Thanks for the advice.