# Have a 150 gallon, need stocking help/suggestions



## lmhollist (Aug 7, 2009)

Greetings everyone!

My boyfriend and I got a 150 gallon (72 x 18 ) several weeks ago and we've been sitting on it for awhile trying to decide how we wanted to stock it. We've been going back and forth between an all-male Lake Malawi or Central American or even just a large species tank.

Anyway, today I got inspired to potentially try a Lake Victoria Basin tank. We saw a few examples of Zebra Obliquidens (Astatotilapia latifasciata) and subsequently bought a single individual because we liked him so much (plus a guy at the LFS said they tend to do well in Lake Malawi hap setups). Anyway, I've since read they do best in groups of six and thought they would be an interesting species to have in our 150. However, I have a few questions (setting up this 150 and stocking it is probably several months into the future anyway).

Are breeding groups possible in this size of a tank? How many individual groups? If so, what species can we mix without having to be too concerned about inter-species breeding?

I'm really interested in trying to put together a group of 6 or so of the Zebra Obliquidens (2 male 4 female?). We also like the idea getting a group of Paralabidochromis sp. "fire" because we can get them from a local breeder. What other species would work well with this mix?

Thanks in advance for your suggestions and experiences!

*Edit:* Also looking at Pundamilia Nyererei as another species to consider for the tank


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## samaki (Oct 25, 2002)

Hi Yu can house H.latifasciatus"zebra obliquidens" with P.nyererei and red fire together, normally they are sufficiently different to not cross breed, it's better to put 1 or 2 males with 4 to 5 females if yu can.
xris


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## lmhollist (Aug 7, 2009)

Thanks!

Would the three groups of let's say 7 members each (2 males, 5 females), creating a total of 21 fish, be the max for this tank? Could I do a 4th species and keep the groups small, for example, 6 members of each species? Or if not, what's the ideal number of fish I could do with this tank with just the species mix of nyereiri, red fire, and the zebra obliquidens? They all seem to stay within the 4 to 5 inch range according to the profiles section.

We've purchased the Fluval FX5 to use as filtration for this tank. We are also considering some sort of sump or refugium to add on as well. Sump/refugium size would probably be either a 20 ( 24 x 12 ) or a 29 gallon ( 30x12 ).


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## samaki (Oct 25, 2002)

Hi yu can add a 4th species, choose between differents morphology such as matumbi hunter, orthostoma or perrieri. The nyerrerei needs many rock holes to feel secure and to protect females and young from dominant male so yu'll have to build a rock pile in a corner of yur tank.Yu can put some plants in there also, they help to brake down the visual perpectives and to separate the territories.
xris


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