Crazy Cichlids, Please Help ID    8/22/13
Lake Malawi Cichlid ID's
Hey Bob and Crew,
I have recently been given these two cichlid's and cannot ID them. The blue and yellow one is very aggressive and also eats any fish in its way. I have looked at many fish on your site and many of them look too similar for me to ID. Can you tell what species of cichlid's these animals are?
Thanks, Amber
< The lower fish is a Pseudotropheus acei. It travels around in large schools feeding on algae growing on wooden objects found in the lake. The upper fish is a very under fed piscivore. It looks like a Stigmatochromis sp. modestus from Makokola Reef in Malawi. It will eat anything that will fit into its large mouth. Chuck><<These fish need to... too skinny! B>>

Cichlid questions     4/28/13
Hi WWM Crew,
Hope all is well. I've recently inherited a 55 gallon Mbuna tank from my brother-in-law - with twins on the way my sister decided it was time to start cutting back on some things. Unfortunately my brother-in-law's knowledge of the fish seemed to end with "they looked nice." I've tried to do some research online, but found a couple points I could use clarification on. From what I can tell, the current species in the tank are 5 Demasoni,
<Males of this species are extremely aggressive, particularly towards their own species and other fish with similar colours. Multiple females per male will help, as will masses of rockwork, but your aquarium is at the absolute minimum size for this species. Don't be fooled by its small adult size (around 7-8 cm) being half that of regular Mbuna -- in no sense is this a "dwarf" cichlid in terms of personality!>
5 Yellow Lab, 4 Snow White Socolofi, 4 Acei,
<These three are relatively easy-going species often recommended to beginners because they're unlikely to kill one another / anything else kept with them. They're also sufficiently different in looks that the Demasoni should be able to tell they're not their own kind.>
and 3 upside-down cats (Synodontis Nigriventris, I believe).
<These prefer soft to moderately hard, slightly acidic to slightly basic water chemistry. Not really suited to a hard water Mbuna system.>
All of the fish are about 2-2.5 inches in size currently.
<Still pups!>
The tank is currently showing no ammonia, no nitrites, and minimal nitrates (i.e., at the very lower threshold of detection on my kit). Filtration is provided by a Penguin Bio-Wheel (200 GPH) that my brother-in-law had and a spare Fluval 305 (260 GPH) I had available and seeded with some of the material from my tropical tank in hopes of jump-starting its bacteria. With 460 GPH of flow I'm pretty comfortable with the filtration. Now, on to the questions:
1) In general, anything to watch out for with that mix of species? I'd imagine hybridization could be a problem, along with aggression (though I haven't noticed much yet, possibly to do the tank being moved and rearranged).
<See above.>
2) I've read that Synodontis cats in general do well with Mbunas, however, I've also seen in a place or two that Synodontis Nigriventris may be an exception since it prefers different water chemistry. Should I  consider relocating them to my 30 gallon tropical community tank? Or should I just assume that since they seem to be doing well that they can  stay?
<I'd move them rather than leave them where they are. Synodontis nigriventris is a lovely, peaceful species that does better in quiet communities of small to medium sized fish. It's only flaws are that it's shy (solved by keeping in groups and using floating plants, in which case it rests under those, even in full view) and that it occasionally nibbles at the fins of things like fancy Guppies.>
3) I've also read a fair bit about overstocking to control aggression but haven't seen much about how many fish that actually entails. I did see Mary's rule of thumb formula that would yield about 25 fish in a 50, which seems like a lot to me - though since we're talking about overstocking that well may be the point. Any guidance on that point?
<It's really tricky to define "overstocking" because it's a recipe for disaster if not done right! The aim isn't so much to overstock the tank as such, but to add so many of a given species that it's impossible for any one male to set up a permanent territory. Oddly, if they're frustrated in this, their aggression actually diminishes a bit, presumably because evolution has favoured males that are most aggressive when they have something worth fighting for, not merely randomly aggressive. Anyway, if this was me, I'd remove all of the Demasoni or at least all but one male and 2-3 females; conventional wisdom is that you need something like a dozen Mbuna of any one species in an aquarium to "overstock" it, and your tank just isn't the right size for that. This is the species you need to watch, and overstocking in terms of Demasoni will make overstocking (in the negative sense) this relatively small tank rather easy, so you end up with difficult to manage water parameters. The other, relatively mellow Mbuna should be happy amongst themselves.>
4) As a follow-up to #3, if I should get more, any suggestions for what would work well? Simply add more of the same, maybe bringing them up to 6 of each species? Or are there any other species that would fit in nicely?
<Iodotropheus is a classic "peaceful" Mbuna, so any of those would be worth considering; Iodotropheus sprengerae is the species commonly offered. But yes, you might choose to add a few more of what you have already, but do bear in mind the Socolofi will get fairly big, around 15 cm/6 inches, so your tank is already quite well stocked. You have excellent water quality now… why push it? Many, if not most problems with cichlid health come down to water quality, particularly chronically high nitrate levels.>
Many thanks in advance, I've learned more from your wonderful site over the years than I would have thought possible when I started in the hobby.
Chris
<Thanks for the kind words. Cheers, Neale.>
Cichlid ID      4/28/13
Hello Chuck, Bob:
There's a mystery cichlid photo I've put into Chuck's pigeonhole. I'm not very good at identifying Rift Valley cichlids on sight, though this little Mbuna does look rather familiar. Any thoughts?
Cheers, Neale
Re Cichlid ID     4/28/13
Got me. Chuck? B
Cichlid questions     4/28/13
<Chris, I passed your question and my answer along to Mary Bailey, and she offered up a couple alternative (and likely better) bits of advice for you to think upon:
"I'm with you most of the way on what you say, except:
(1)Ps. demasoni is one of those species that behaves like Attila the Hun for some people and is a pussycat for others.  I would prefer a suck it and see approach, especially as these are young fishes growing on together and that often produces a less trauma-ridden scenario than communities of adult Mbuna suddenly thrown into one another's company. 
(2) My overcrowding strategy isn't based on large numbers of individuals of species but on total number of Mbuna of all species.  Back when the strategy was evolved you were lucky if you could obtain a pair of a species, let alone a bunch of them, as we were dealing with wild fishes. 
You are in fact more likely to have trouble if you have multiple conspecific males than if you have just one male of a species, because serious fights are more likely where there is intraspecific competition. 
The general idea of the crowding is not so much to stop males fighting (heterospecific males don't usually bother) as to stop males pursuing their females to death - the tank is so busy that the females can lose themselves in the crowd and males are less keen on leaving their little patch as they may come back to find it usurped and will have to run the gamut of other males to do any serious chasing."
Hope these additions are useful. Mary knows her stuff. Cheers, Neale.>
Re: Cichlid questions     4/28/13
I feel foolish now because I completely forgot the other question I had. I neglected to mention there are several that I have been able to positively identify. Could you take a look and let me know what you think they are?
I've found a couple of pictures online that look close in one way or another so I'm starting to think they may be some kind of hybrid or species that might not be that common in the trade.
Many thanks again
Chris
<Got this from the illustrious Ad Konings, via the ever helpful Mary Bailey: "Almost certainly juvenile of Nimbochromis fuscotaeniatus". So there you go! Nice fish, and Nimbochromis tend to be peaceful, though predatory. Cheers, Neale.>

fish id, possibly Krib?     7/6/12
Bob and Crew,
I have searched your site and some others and cannot get an ID on this animal that I am comfortable with. Based on what I see on your site, I am thinking a Cichlid; perhaps, a Krib? He came with 6 'rescued' Blood Parrots and is not the friendliest to them.
Thanks, as always, for your help!
Regards,
Kevin
<Nope, not a Krib. It's a Melanochromis species of some sort, probably a male Melanochromis auratus. This species is notoriously aggressive (some would say psychotic) but will work well in mixed species tanks if kept alongside other very aggressive Mbuna. Like other Mbuna, it feeds primarily on algae, so any algae-based flake food will maintain it well. Occasional live daphnia and the like will be appreciated, too. In terms of water chemistry, it will need moderately hard to hard, basic conditions to do well. Cheers, Neale.>