peacocks, yellow labs and rustys?

[cmoorewv]

Quick query here for any experienced cichlid owners. Would a combo of peacock mbuna ( either ob or sunburst), electric yellow labs, and rusty cichlids work well in a 75 tank? It seems like it would, on paper. If so, in what general proportions? If it doesn't work, fill me in on why and what might do better. I'm super close to being ready to fire up my African tank.
Thanks.

[russ]

Peacock cichlids are not synonymous with Mubuna and not recommended to be housed together. Particularly, not with Labeotropheus, Petrotilapia, Metriaclima, or Pseudotropheus. They are much too rowdy and naturally occupy different strata in the lake and have very different diets.

[cmoorewv]

What might be a better grouping then? I'm looking for low to moderate aggression, and bright color. My LFS has some pretty colorful ones in right now (according to them - haven't been there yet) but the guy straight up told me he's not an expert in African cichlids. They have Taiwan reefs, cobues, yellow labs, pundamilia reds, SP 44 (never heard of those before), peacock ob, and so on. I'd like to group a few different colors in there.

[russ]

Taiwan Reefs are good fish, the Pundamilia is Lake Victorian (not recommended wih P. reds). Cynotilapia Afra Cobue is also not recommended. Their SP 44 is a Haplichromis and deffinately also not recommended . OB Peacock should be good also. Aulonocara stuartgranti should be good also. Aulonocara maleri could round out a good combo. All of these have great colors and are different color patterns also. I would start with these.

So, IMHO, if I had a selection option to go with, they would be:

* Taiwan Reef
* OB Peacock
* A. stuartgranti
* A. maleri
And........... a Synodontis eupterus catfish to round out the group 

[cmoorewv]

Thanks for the ideas. I'll check and see what the LFS has.
That is a good starting point.

[cmoorewv]

How about metriaclima species? They are listed on the available for order list also. Very beautiful fish. Socolofi is on the list too. Sorry for all the questions. I'm not getting the friend's bumble bee cichlid now, so I have a lot more possibilities to pick from. Having the bumblebee would have really limited my options.
Edit - it appears from a bit of research that zebra species would be too aggressive for milder peacocks.

[russ]

I would also forget the Socolofi. My recommendations were just my personal tastes, but would still be a good mix. You would have a nice mix of Aulonocara and Protomelas. A medium sized Malawi cat again, could round out a nice Rift aquarium along with some creative rock work for structure. Those guys would be easier to feed also.

[cmoorewv]

The cycling process has begun! The water is a balmy 78.5 degrees, and seeded with ammonia. I put some mature media in the filters but I had to wait a couple days for the ammonia because the stuff I had on hand had lost its potency. So, any bacteria I had experienced a bit of die off I figure. It's been 24 hours and there's no noticeable reduction in ammonia, so I figure this may take a bit of time. At least this will give me time to settle on a species list. And time to figure out what's going on with my betta in the 20L tank. This is not the proper forum for that discussion, I know...but she has an odd scale less patch on her head. I thought it was fungus but I'm not sure. Treating with salt to start. If no improvement I'll head over to the fish health board.
Russ, thanks for the pointers. You've given me quite a few species to mull over.

[rasaqua]

Don't treat your Betta with salt. You may be doing more harm to your fish with the salt addition than what could possibly be a scale loss from a bump or scratch. I would use a bit of Melafix first.

[cmoorewv]

Still no real reduction in ammonia in the cycling tank, so I did a PWC and added a few plants. I suspect I OD'd on ammonia because I'm using lab grade stuff. The plants should get a great start at least before fish go in and start munching. I introduced some floating water sprite, a couple baby java ferns and a couple African fern starts - all budding off existing plants in my 55 gallon. It has only been 4 days I think, and being a large tank with 2 filters, it's probably not going to cycle as quickly as I want it to so I'll just have to be patient. There's filter pads from my 55 gallon in there as well as some biomedia that's new.
The betta is I posted about is looking better, BTW. I cleaned out quite a bit of plant litter, thinned out decaying plants and did a couple PWC's. I had added salt at a normal dose (not a higher dose for disease) and that didn't seem to cause harm. Her bare patch on the head is clearing up nicely.
Just gotta learn to play the waiting game as far as the cichlid tank goes.

[Goose]

Quick query here for any experienced cichlid owners. Would a combo of peacock mbuna ( either ob or sunburst), electric yellow labs, and rusty cichlids work well in a 75 tank? It seems like it would, on paper. If so, in what general proportions? If it doesn't work, fill me in on why and what might do better. I'm super close to being ready to fire up my African tank.
Thanks.

I have a tank with both peacocks and mbuna. And in the past had breeding pairs of Demasoni and Yellow Labs in the same tank for years. If you want "peace in the valley" though, you need to replicate their natural habitat as much as possible-lots of caves, sand or small gravel for them to move and sift, broken sightlines and adequate stocking. Under stocking an African Cichlid tank can lead to aggression. If you only want a few cichlids, I'd advise to get some what I call "distraction fish"- large, hardy schooling top swimmers like giant danios or some of the alkaline/hard water tolerant rainbow fish  and maybe 2 or 3 African rift catfish or half a dozen clown loaches for the bottom.