# Just got my fish! 100g mbuna tank



## b3w4r3 (Dec 14, 2012)

Hello everyone. New to this forum, but have been quietly browsing for about two months now. I've had an empty 100g tank for awhile now and decided it was time to get it going again. At first I was thinking something easy like an Oscar, but seeing and reading about mbuna changed that.

I fishless cycled my tank, and when it was ready for fish talked to mt LFS guy to see what he had/could get. I told him I wanted some juvenile Acei, Saulosi, and Rustys to start off with. After two weeks all he had were the Acei, and they were pretty big (about 2 1/2 inches). I picked up 8 of them from him, and told him to hold off on the rest while I look around.

I ended up ordering the remainder on line from a farm here in florida. They sent 9 Saulosi, 9 Rustys, and 9 Cobalt Albinos. They all arrived alive and in good shape, though at 1 to 1 1/2 inches much smaller than the Acei. I floated them to equalize the temp then slowly netted them out of their bags and into my tank. The Acei quickly darted to the new arrivals, checking them out, but being aggressive at all which relieved me. After all the new fish were in the tank they began to swim around, apparently not shy at all. After a few minutes I noticed one of the Saulosi looked pretty weak and was wedging him self in the gravel and laying there lifeless. A few of the other fish were displaying similar behavior , but not as bad as this one fish. My first instinct was that he was going to die by morning, and it made me pretty sad. Hate to lose any fish obviously, but one loss in a shipment of 27 fish isn't bad considering the stress they go through. When I went to bed he was still displaying the same behavior 

Woke up this morning, turned on the lights, and tried to do a quick count of the fish. Pretty challenging as they are all swimming around, and some glass surfing up and down. I was very much relieved to find all fish accounted for and very active :thumb:

Earlier I called the place I got them, gave my thanks for the nice fish, and told them about the one that was laying on the bottom. She said that they use a tranquilizer when shipping the fish and sometimes some come out of it a little slow. Never heard this myself but the fish were packed in water with a blue tint so I know there was some additive there.

Now that my rambling is out of the way, I hope I have made good choices here. I tried to select low aggression fish (for mbuna) and something that will be a nice colorful set up as they mature. I'm not intending to keep or sell any fry out of this tank, but am interested in knowing how likely cross breeding will be if anyone has opinions. Here is the stock list...

8 Acei
9 Sualosi
9 Rusty
9 Cobalt Albino

As far as the tank set-up it's a 6" 100g tank, I'm running a wet dry sump filter with an 800 gph pump, and have 2 Aqueon 700 gph circulation pumps in the tank. I will probably change to a black sand after things have been running for a little longer but for now it's large gravel. Adding more rock and changing things around is bound to happen also, but the fish seem content so far.

Looking forward to comments and suggestions, I have learned a lot reading this forum. Enough to know I still have a lot to learn :fish:

Below are some pictures, I know they are pretty bad, but I'm just not getting the hang of this digital camera yet.

Picture of the tank before I added any fish.

Cobalt Albino - Metriaclima Callainos?

Pseudotropheus saulosi


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## metricliman (Sep 3, 2012)

Looks good! I'm glad you did your research before!


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

All sounds good, enjoy it.


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## ratbones86 (Jun 29, 2012)

you shouldn't have any cross breading going on in there. looks to be a good stock. ENJOY!


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## b3w4r3 (Dec 14, 2012)

Thanks for the support! Have a small issue now unfortunately, sometime after I turned on the lights this morning, and fed, one of the Saulosi acquired an injury  One of his eyes is swollen and a little cloudy. I know it happened sometime after the feeding as I did a count when I woke up and he was fine. He is one of the Saulosi I suspect is male. After I noticed the injury I did a quick 50% water change, and will continue doing that for as many days as necessary. I'm hoping he can recover in the main tank. He is pretty much sticking to an area of cover around the same spot. I did notice him swim out a bit ago and have a look around, but he is obviously stressed. The other fish don't seem interested in him at this point. Most of them are constantly surfing a corner of the tank up and down the glass (I hope this stops soon lol).

Water quality is all in check;

Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate was less than 20 (I can't see a difference on the api color chart between 10 and 20)
Ph 8.2 maybe 8.3
Temp about 78

The Acei are mostly about 2 1/2 to 3 inches so I'm hoping to see some interest in them soon as far as breeding goes. Only 2 of them have an egg spot, and one of those is the biggest, but I have no idea yet what sex any of them are. At least they're not glass surfing.

The few times that they were all moving about the tank it was beautiful, filling the tank from top to bottom.


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## master chi (Jan 3, 2010)

The corner surfing or "pacing "is pretty normal for fish in a new tank. I actually wish they did this more often. It's kinda fun to watch.

Sometimes fish kind of thrash about during transport and get the cloudy eye you described. My Acei did this when I drove him home in a bucket,he got the cloudy eye which lasted for about a week or so and has since completely healed.

I too made an effort to perform extra water changes and add prime for extra slime coat. I do hope your little guy is simply suffering from this simple ailment rather than abuse from a tankmate.

Good Luck with all the new fishies


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## Floridagirl (Jan 10, 2008)

I find that adding a little Epsom Sale to the tank can help the fish heal more quickly, and prevent bloat in stressful situations. I add about 1/2 cup-1 cup each day for 2-3 days, depending on water changes.


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## Yael (Nov 25, 2012)

A cup? I've been adding a Tbs with water changes of 5 gal. I can feel the difference in the water on my fingers at that amount.


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## Floridagirl (Jan 10, 2008)

I add a little at a time to reach up to 1 cup per day for 2-3 days, not to shock fish. It's a 100 gallon tank. Normal rift buffer is 1 tsp per 5 gallons, which is 20tsp per 100 gallons or 6.67 tablespoons. So, 1/2 cup (8 tablespoons) is slightly over standard water buffering. I've gone up to a week using this treatment on a whole tank full of fish. I cured a Tropheus with severe bloat using only Epsom Salt. I really thought she had no hope of making it. It helps with popeye as well, and doesn't effect other fish as mcuh as other meds, such as antibiotics and antiparasitics.


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

My fish recover from eye injuries in 1-2 days with just clean water. If it is an infection that might be a different story.


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## b3w4r3 (Dec 14, 2012)

Thanks for the concerns and suggestions. The little guy is still hanging in there. His breathing is labored, but other than the eye problem he looks fine. No nipped fins or body nips. He is still sticking to the rock work but he's not getting bullied. If things get worse, or he starts to look weak I will set up a hospital tank, and maybe try a little salt in it.


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## madmort0 (Oct 29, 2011)

I like the last pic.


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## b3w4r3 (Dec 14, 2012)

Was able to get a pic of the injured fish. It's his right eye, so not the one visible in the pic, but you can see the swelling from this angle.

Didn't have a pic of any of the Rusty's so I got an ok one earlier. Really hard with these guys, they are so small.

This next one of the Acei just came out in pretty good fucus. Not the best angle, but at least I'm getting the camera settings better.

Another one of the Acei. I kind of like this one, looks like good meme material.


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## b3w4r3 (Dec 14, 2012)

Well my little injured Saulosi is recovering from his eye injury pretty well. The swelling has gone down and his breathing has returned to normal. Eye is still a little cloudy but he is eating and staying out in the open more.

My largest Saulosi (a male) was acting stressed yesterday. He is pretty fat so I have been watching him closely. Yesterday I noticed him staying near a rock opening in a moderately high flow area with his side fins clamped to his body. I also noticed that his dorsal fin is separated near the back. After a couple hours he seemed to return to normal, though his coloration seems to be changing now. I think it's just him starting to develop into the blue, as he doesn't look orange anymore, and the band between his eyes is starting to get blue. Below is a picture of him in all his fatness.



Due to his fatness, and seeing some white stringy feces from a few fish, I am starting to wet their pellets with a 3% magnesium sulfate solution in an attempt treat for bloat. None of the shops around me have anything with metro, or clout, and I saw this treatment on another site so I didn't think it would hurt. I haven't added any epsom salt directly to the tank water though. I did feed them peas last night and today haven't seen a return of any of the white stringy stuff. I'm going to continue with the soaking treatment for a few days unless anyone thinks it's a bad idea.

Overall they all seem to be settling in, and the glass surfing is only an occasional thing. I was a little disturbed this morning when I turned on the lights and noticed some fleshy debris on the bottom. It turned out to be recycled peas, and not actual fish flesh so I just netted it up.

Lastly I noticed I have 10 Rustys, not the 9 I thought earlier!


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## madmort0 (Oct 29, 2011)

What kind of camera are you using?


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## b3w4r3 (Dec 14, 2012)

madmort0 said:


> What kind of camera are you using?


It's an Olympus VG-160 digital point and shoot.


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