# Electric blue lobster and bristle nose in Mbuna tank?



## Dex777 (Sep 6, 2010)

I have 6 random mbuna in a 36 gallon bowfront. I would like to add a bristle nose pleco and an electric blue lobster to the tank.

I keep hearing different opinions as to whether this would work. There are lots of hiding spots etc and things are fairly peaceful in the tank right now.

Let me know if you need more info.


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## 702Cichlid (Feb 28, 2010)

The pleco probably has about a 50/50 shot of surviving being added to an established mbuna tank...mbuna are just hard even on the armored plecos like the BN or the bulldog. If you're having algae problems it would be the first fish i'd try--just be prepared for the little dude to not make it.

Blue Lobsters are another can of worms. They will actively hunt your sleeping mbuna at night...now they won't be very good at it but it's what they do and since they're nocturnal and the mbuna are diurnal they will get their shot. On the flip side, when the lobster molts he will most likely be killed by a curious mbuna while he's all soft and squishy. Not a really good idea either way.

If you're looking for a bottom feeder/scavenger, your options are kind of limited by your tank size (which honestly is too small for anything but dwarf mbuna, but you'll have to cross that road yourself when the fish start to reach sexual maturity). You could get a single Synodontis catfish (Synodontis Eupterus would be my choice though they will be a bit on the big side for a 36 bowfront) The other synos like to be kept in groups which you definitely don't have room for. You could also try a Red Tailed Black Shark who is tough and aggressive enough to hang with many mbuna, but that can also lead to some trouble with your tank size since the RTBS likes a big bottom of the tank territory for it's own which can lead to issues with your mbuna.

Hope this helped!


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## davecshrode (Jul 7, 2010)

well I have a blue crayfish in with my mbuna (has molted like 4-5 times) and he is left to do what he wants and vise versa, i will say that a true lobster is a different story as they will get up to a foot long, a crayfish will max out at 5-6 inches and live 2-3 years, as for the bn pleco, i had one and all he did was hide in one cave I had and poop all day, at night he barley cleaned anything....i am told this happens when the lfs feeds them alge wafers and what not, they just get lazy so its 50/50 if the bn will even be worth the space in the tank IMO.


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## amakayov (Sep 2, 2010)

well, I had a tank full of all kinds of mbuna... just random ones before i switched over to the Taiwan reef and deep water haps that I have. I have 2 common plecos, and a high fin pleco. The high fin being the smallest only, every once in a while had a few nibbles out of his fins, very rarely though. I also had 2 red tail sharks, a black and an albino. Also, 3 corey cats (which dont seem to get all that big), and 3 algae eaters. They were never really picked on at all... but then again I do have a 75g aquarium...
What I would recommend doing, is if you have a seperate tank, get some sort of pleco and let him grow in the other tank before introducing him to the mbuna tank... I think that will atleast give him a chance if you are worried about him being picked on... Now the lobster or crayfish I would know absolutely nothing about. I know when I was younger we used to catch a few from a lake and put them in an Oscar tank... they did live though haha... I hope my post helps at least a little

-Amanda


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

702Cichlid said:


> The pleco probably has about a 50/50 shot of surviving being added to an established mbuna tank...mbuna are just hard even on the armored plecos like the BN or the bulldog. If you're having algae problems it would be the first fish i'd try--just be prepared for the little dude to not make it.
> 
> Blue Lobsters are another can of worms. They will actively hunt your sleeping mbuna at night...now they won't be very good at it but it's what they do and since they're nocturnal and the mbuna are diurnal they will get their shot. On the flip side, when the lobster molts he will most likely be killed by a curious mbuna while he's all soft and squishy. Not a really good idea either way.
> 
> ...


I agree with this except for the Shark recommendation and I would choose a trio of Synodontis Lucipinnis for leftover food. I have BNs in every tank and have had a 60/40 survival rate. Once they make it, they are good. For me they do a reasonable job on the algae...better than other options I've tried. I would introduce the BN and mbuna all at the same time as juveniles.

If you do a search on posts about lobsters and crayfish, you will see most of the stories end as 702Cichlid describes.


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## exasperatus2002 (Jul 5, 2003)

Sounds like you dont like your fish. The lobster will kill off the fish at night. One of my friends tried it. Told me he got something cool. When I went over I told he had a crayfish. He said no its not its a lobster. I had to explain it all to him then he goes...oh I was wondering why he was waving at the fish I thought he was trying to play with them.


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