# Lake Victoria Species Compatibility



## Fishandpitbulls (May 20, 2015)

I've been posting quite a bit about my office tank, which is a 46 gallon (36 inch) bowfront with 15 mbuna and 4 (or 3) Victoria "Haps", all males. I posted yesterday because the astatotilapia aeneocolor was being bullied and not doing well. I pulled him out and put him in a QT tank. He's not looking great but it's not over yet...still hoping he pulls through. In any case, it seems likely that I may have to pull all of the Victorias at some point as the mbuna grow and become more aggressive. Actually, one of the Victorias (paralabidochromis sauvagei "Mwanza Gulf") is the top fish in the tank right now and thriving. If that continues I won't pull him. He's stunning and very active. The other two are holding their own ok. The pundamilia "crimson tide" seems to be doing great. The xystichromis sp. "flameback" is ok but not colored up at all and has a couple nips out of his fins. He's larger than the other fish now but I suspect he'll need to come out soon because the mbuna will beat up on him once they're big enough.

ANYWAY, if I pull these guys out, I would like to keep at least one of them for myself. They are such cool fish and are probably my favorites in the whole tank. So I'm wondering....

1) Is a 55 gallon sufficient for the species I mentioned? 
2) Are these species compatible together? I'm thinking not since their coloring is similar. Would that mean I would need to choose one male to keep and rehome the others?
3) Is it possible to do an all-male Victoria tank or should I look into a species tank with one male and several females?
4) Could I do a tank with 2 of these males and then get some females of each species for them? If so, which ones would be best? 
5) If you were me and you had these 4 male fish, what would you do? Which would you keep? Which would you rehome? What size tank would you get? What would you choose for tankmates and how many?

To recap, these are the 4 species in question:
*astatotilapia aeneocolor
*xystiochromis sp. flameback
*pundamilia sp. crimson tide
*labidochromis sauvagei "mwanza gulf"

Thanks for your help!


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## samaki (Oct 25, 2002)

Hi I won't keep together H.sp"flameback" and H.aeneocolor because they are close in male colours and may perceive the other as direct rival for breeding with the death of the dominated one, the 55 g is sufficient if yu put some female with the 3 species( yu'll have to choose between aeneocolor and flameback) yu'll have tio put a lots of hideouts and tha't's in. Sorry for answering you so late


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## Fishandpitbulls (May 20, 2015)

samaki said:


> Hi I won't keep together H.sp"flameback" and H.aeneocolor because they are close in male colours and may perceive the other as direct rival for breeding with the death of the dominated one, the 55 g is sufficient if yu put some female with the 3 species( yu'll have to choose between aeneocolor and flameback) yu'll have tio put a lots of hideouts and tha't's in. Sorry for answering you so late


Thank you for responding, it can be really hard to get advice from people who have experience with Vics. Unfortunately both the aeneocolor and the pundamilia died, and I rehomed the paralabidochromis sauvagei along with the surviving mbuna. I do still have the xystichromis and I'm going to try him in a tank with pseudotropheus saulosi and see how he does. If it doesn't go well I will pull him and maybe start up a species tank for him. I have an empty 29 gallon at home, do you think he could do ok in that temporarily until I can get something larger?


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## samaki (Oct 25, 2002)

Hi I think it can work.


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