Update of question asked yesterday. I was given a 35 gal hex with appx. 30-40 African cichlids what to I do?

Question

I have had this tank for 1 week and was told to get rid of alot of the fish but how many? There are around 30-40 fish in the tank. I did a 20 gal water change 3 days ago and the amonia leves are safe the ph is 7.6. I had to go to the pet store to find out what kind of fish I had then more reserach to find out what species. I have

1Labidochromis caeruleus Electric Yellow Labido (4")
15 Pseudotropheus estherae Red Zebra Cichlid (1.5 - 3")
1 Melanochromis joanjohnsonae 'Pearl of Likoma' (4.5")
1 That looks like the pearl above but with yellow fins and tail (4.5")
3 Neolamprologus leleupi Lemon Cichlid (3.5")
8 that look like the lemon but are peach color (1.5 - 3")
5 That look like a kennyjj(?) (3") Gray/silver body with light vertical black stripes the 4 babys have darker stripes (.5")
How many can I keep and what do I do with the ones I can't?
Thanks for any help

Answer 1

Kudos on the research. I would advise against keeping any in that size/shape tank, however if you got the tank and fish for free, why not give it a shot. Do your best to find a LFS that will take some off your hands. Most of your fish are pretty aggressive, even for Africans. You could keep the Leleupi, as they are neat fish. I've owned they "orange" varient before. I would suggest adding a few more though(2-3). The EL lab would be your best bet outta your current fish, however you would need to add another 5. So that brings us to the iffy suggestion. You "could" keep all the Estherae temporarily(which are actually Metriaclima NOT Pseudos), and slowly pull out males as they "appear".This suggestion might give you more experience in cichlids. You would want to end up with about 6-7 fish(1M/5-6F). These are semi-aggressive africans(Mbuna). You would need to build rockwork up the tank to create more territory. You would also need to perform 50% H2O a week(I do this in all my 700g's of African cichlid tanks anyway). Use PRIME as a dechlorinator. If you cannot find new homes for the other fish, try Aquabid or post a approx location here, maybe someone could help. Your atleast doing your best, with your new situation. Asking is the first part, learning is the next. This could end up being a great learning exp, just dont be to upset IF it fails. The tank size and types of africans are against you, but I've seen stranger setups work. Just remember to have fun, and keep up with the tank.

Answer 2

If you figure an inch per gallon for 5 inch long fish, your max would be 7 fish. Cichlids might need more room than a gallon per inch, based on their temperament, but as I've never kept any cichlids, I wouldn't know. I suggest you do some research on them. You could keep more while they're small, but be sure to give them more room than a gallon per inch (I'd give them each an extra inch) so they have room to grow, and be sure to cull your stock as they get bigger too. So even if all the fish were an inch, I would say it's not wise to keep them all. You'd be able to, at most, keep 17 inch-long ones (since you do need to allow room to grow), and again, keeping in mind that you will have to get rid of at least 10 more over time. Most fish stores will take unwanted fish, so long as they are healthy. EDIT: After reading the replies, your first responder seems to have a good amount of knowledge about Cichlids. I would recommend following her advice. Hex tanks really are too tall for most fish. Most fish need horizontal space to swim in, and all that vertical space is really a waste.

Answer 3

Well your Electric Yellow Labido I would Keep (just remember they like the hard alkaline water around 76-82 (But remember with Chichlids, only 5 fish for a 30 gallon tank.)

Take back to the pet store 12 Red Zebra Cichlid

Keep the 2 Melanochromis joanjohnsonae (Depending on the color)
take back the 5 Peach cichlid

Take back all the Kennyjj (Not sure what you meant there.

Even with this yourtank is maxed out. However if you keep your eye on the nitrates, you shouldn't have a problem.

A pet stre that sells these fish are willing to take them off your hands. Most will even exchange the fish for tank and fish supplies.

What you end up keeping is up to you. What colors do you like in the fish, since you have a variety.

Sorry, just wanted to add a word for those who have no clue and keep giving bad advice about nitrates in their tanks. Your reading will never and can never be 0. Even when you start your tank, regular tap water has nitrates in it. Most of you have gotten confused by Nitrite and Nitrate.

I will explain the two again.

Nitrite is the result of the metabolism of ammonia by Nitrosomonas bacteria, which oxidize ammonia (NH3) and convert it into nitrite (NO2). This is a part of the nitrogen cycle, If you wish, I can explain that again as well. Nitrobacter species of bacteria take the process one step further and further oxidize the nitrites into Nitrates (NO3). Nitrite is fairly toxic and in a well-balanced, aged aquarium will always test at zero. It is unavoidable to have nitrite in a tank that is new, where the nitrogen cycle is not complete because there are not yet enough bacteria to treat ammonia and nitrite. As the bacteria populations rise, ammonia and nitrite levels both fall to zero. Provided you don't over-stock the tank or add fish too quickly, you will see little fluctutation in these levels. Nitrates are always present in aquariums. They do not get removed through normal biological filtration. They are removed by algae which consumes them as food, by anaerobic de-nitrifying bacteria which occurr naturally inside of live rock, for a salt water tank, and by water changes (the most common way of reducing nitrates). There are also Nitrate pads available on the market for tanks temporarly overstocked.

Nitrate levels are ok from 20-40 ppm. (you should never let your nitrate level exceed 120 ppm) If your test kit is reading 0, get a better test kit. For salt water tanks Fish can tolerate a great deal more than invertebrates. your nitrates should remain closer to the 20 ppm.

Answer 4

You said the ammonia levels are "safe" - what do you mean by that? Anything above 0 is not safe; ammonia is toxic in any ammount. Fish can tolerate maybe 0.25 for a little while, but a healthy tank will always read ZERO for ammonia and nitrites.

As I said yesterday, you need to get rid of almost all of those fish. Forget about the 1 inch per gallon rule, and consider the actual dimensions of your tank. Cichlids need territory, and lots of it, or they will fight. They are also big, messy eaters, active swimmers, and they require a decent amount of room. A 35 gallon regular rectangle tank is not big enough for Malawi cichlids - let alone a 35 gallon hex which is for all practical purposes, much smaller - because it is taller, the ground surface is much less, meaning that each fish can have less territory; it also means that the cross-tank swimming room is less - this about the widest part of the tank, and the rest of the tank is not that wide; and lastly, the surface of the water is much less, which means for poor oxygen exchange. If you were to force the issue and put Malawi cichlids in there, your limit would be at most 3 of them.

So anyhoo, that said, you'll need to get rid of:
The Yellow Lab
The Red Zebras
The 2 melanochromis pearls
The 8 peach neolamprologus Leleupi
All the Kenyii

You can keep the 3 neolamprologus leleupi, but only them. They will be comfortable in a 35 gallon hex tank because their adult size is only about 3.5". They will probably produce fry for you if they are kept comfortable, anyway.

If you wanted to make better used of the tank space, though, you should forget the African Cichlids altogether and get a fish that uses vertical space more than horizontal space, like a couple angelfish.

Answer 5

You have some fairly aggressive species in there. Your tank may suited for a small group of less aggressive yellow labs/ labidochromis caeruleus (5-7), try to exchange or trade all the others for those or some rusties. The other lake malawi species are too aggressive for a tank that size (not apparent now since they're still little).

If you decide to keep all or most of them (by opting for a much larger tank), try to limit yourself to species of the same lake (you've got lake malawi and lake tanganyika fish in your tank).

Failure to acquire a larger tank to accomodate them or radically reduce/ restructure your current stock will give your metriaclima species (the red zebras and kenyi's) the opportunity to resolve the matter themselves once sexual maturity is attained (by carrying out killing sprees).

Answer 6

I agree with Zoe. But if you keep just the leleupi they will end up having only themselves for company, and in turn will turn their aggression against each other. If you are lucky you will end up with a pair out of those 3, in which case you will need to remove the third or it will be killed. Leleupi are monogamous breeders, and your 35 gallon tank is enough for one pair and no other fish (although because of the height of the tank you can get away with some top dwelling fish, perhaps danios or something.

The rest of your tank are mbuna, and your tank is just too small for them, period. The pet stores around here take back fish for store credit, or you can also post on the trading thread of a forum like www.cichlid-forum.com - there are lots of people who would gladly take them off your hands.

Don't rely on any fish store for advice, there are just too many employees that know very little and it's just too risky. That website I mentioned above can be an invaluable tool for information if you're willing to take the time to read through the articles and set up a couple of posts.

Answer 7

You were told correctly, you need to seriously thin out that tank. I'm not up on the adult sizes of all the fish you list, but I think I would keep 6-8 of one species in the tank. Do a little more research into the adult size and go for one of the smaller varieties. Many better pet stores may take your extras in on trade and let you pick up some extra rocks or driftwood to create plenty of hiding places for the fish. With that type of set up and proper care you will most likely get babies before too long.

Main thing, research the fish a bit more for size and needs and for the best bet go with a single species tank.

Edit: Zoe has it nailed. I have kept and bred africans before, but I'm not the expert on them she is. Go with her advice in this question IMO

Answer 8

Hex tanks are generally taller and have less surface area and less swimming room than rectangular tanks. Because of this you need to stock it pretty lightly, because fish like to swim back and forth, not up and down. For that tank you need to reduce to about 5-7 cichlids. Even that is pretty high on stocking, but with africans you need to overstock to spread out aggression.

Good news is you should be able to make good money off the other fish. If a local fish store does not want to give you store credit for them, ebay or aquabid are good places to sell them.

Answer 9

You do need to get rid of a few fish, but not as drastic as some people have put it.

With rock dwelling africans like you have, you should double the fish per gallon rule and increase filtration / water changes. The more of them there are, the less aggressive they will be to each other. If you reduce the tank to 6 fish like suggested above, you will end up with 1 or 2 fish after the toughest one singles out all the others & kills them one by one. Most african fish change personalities depending on how crowded things are, and if there is anything in the tank to stake out as territory. With few other fish to dither their aggression, its very easy for one to be singled out & murdered.

My guess would be to initially get rid of about 10 fish. You can give them to a local fish store, many will give you store credit for your trade-ins. After that its a balancing act between how good your filtration / water change schedule is vs how aggressive the fish are. You will find a balance beween the bio-load of the tank and the aggression of the fish.

One thing you can do to help ensure fish health in an overcrowded environment like you have is to add a sponge filter to your air pump. Its like $5 and it cultures bacteria for high bio-load situations. They work very well with tanks whose fish are still young & growing.

Answer 10

The 1 inch per gallon rule is valid for Tropical fish, not goldfish or Cichlids, Cichlids are a whole other species, the main thing with them is territory, they have to have a territory to rule over, and plenty of places to hide. They are a very dominate species, and should only be kept with other fish of the same family (ex. African Cichlids or South American Cichlids). Get a book or see a PetSmart associate for more information on determining what is safe to put with what (if they are impatient, be persistent, that is what they are there for). Remember, you are planning an aquarium for them at full grown size, not just there current size.