# What are the EASIEST mbunas to breed?



## MonsterCichlids (Jan 25, 2012)

looking for some opinions on what you think the top 3 easiest mbuna species are to breed successfully. I want to have 3 breeding groups of mbuna in my 75 gal tank and im just curious what the easiest breeders are
Thanks!


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## mbuna17 (Aug 1, 2011)

In my opinion all mbuna breed easily as long as your water parameters are correct and the mbuna you are keeping are compatible.


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## brinkles (Jan 30, 2011)

red zebras!
The easiest to breed aren't the easiest to get rid of, though. I've got some red zebras that I can't get anyone to take. People seem to want the species that aren't available at the chain stores.


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## cantrell00 (Oct 30, 2010)

Labs would be one for sure. Cyno afra Nkhata Bay have been the equivalent of aquatic rabbits for me as well.


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## MonsterCichlids (Jan 25, 2012)

very cool, yeah id imagine it would be difficult giving away, let alone selling the red zebras, cyno afras are beautiful fish for sure, how are acei's? and how much larger do they get than typical mbunas, i've heared they can get to be 7", i've also liked albino socolofi..how are those with breeding?


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## cantrell00 (Oct 30, 2010)

MonsterCichlids said:


> very cool, yeah id imagine it would be difficult giving away, let alone selling the red zebras, cyno afras are beautiful fish for sure, how are acei's? and how much larger do they get than typical mbunas, i've heared they can get to be 7", i've also liked albino socolofi..how are those with breeding?


acei can get 7". Have never kept the Socolofi..


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## 24Tropheus (Jun 21, 2006)

2 different questions. The easiest to breed are not good for 3 species mixed in a 75g. (tend to be the thugish big guys that dominate other Mbuna)
What your looking for I think is three species that will live together in a 75g that will not hybridise (much) and will all produce a good number of fry when kept together. Hard enough without introducing extra bits. :wink:


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## MonsterCichlids (Jan 25, 2012)

^ yes, exaclty, i was going to mention that i would like the species to have a minimal chance of hybridizing with each other. do you think acei will grow too large then to have a group in a 75 gal with other mbunas?


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## brinkles (Jan 30, 2011)

Acei are good, but I'd stay away from more aggressive tank mates if you want lots of fry from them.

I've got young acei ngara now, they just spat their first spawn in the tank. I'll save the next ones, probably.


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

Also another aspect. Easy to sell? Because your local LFS may take juveniles more as a favor than having any actual desire to buy your fish. And the local fish club will be saturated with the species you choose within a year. It's a break-even proposition at best.

Best sellers are bright colors or ones that take a long time to mature or are hard fish to get. Yellow labs. Demasoni. Saulosi at the moment. Synodontis. Calvus. Not a good mix though.


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## kpswd (Sep 13, 2011)

I have Cynotilapa sp. "Hara", Yellow labs and Rusties in my 75 gallon tank and they are all breeding at a rapid rate. I think a lot has to do with the environment that they live in.

I am fortunate enough that the LFS stores that I deal with buy all my juvies, at a very fair price, but it is for store credit.

Any given month I have between 2-5 batches of fry, so I usually have between 20-50 juvies to get rid of per month.

If I did not have the LFS take my fry, I honestly don't know what I would do with all of them. Make sure that you have plenty of tanks if you plan on keeping the fry so that they don't become food.


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## MonsterCichlids (Jan 25, 2012)

Thanks for the replies everyone, as far as selling the fry and juries i get from the spawns, i've just started working part time at a new family owned pet shop a town over from where i live. The manager is a really cool guy and he's taken a huge interest in cichlids. Him and myself have been working together to make the store predominantly a fish and reptile store, and since i've been working over there, the fish section of the store has doubled in size and we're starting to carry some really cool things. I helped start the entire cichlid department at the store, and the manager said he would totally buy any african cichlid fry from me just to keep the cichlid department to really get the african cichlid section going. You said that yellow labs will sell well? I'd plan on breeding those, and i do really like aces quite a lot


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## ranchialex (Dec 4, 2011)

I'll reiterate about red zebra (met. estherae) breeding readily. I've got three generations living together in the same tank. It helps that my zebra male is the tank alpha.


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## Jmanolinsky (Jun 4, 2010)

It's funny to read the comments about the Red Zebras as I had the opposite experience. My Rusties and Saulosi were breeding like rabbits, but I was getting nothing from my Zebras. I finally got a clutch of about 20 about a month ago.


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## 24Tropheus (Jun 21, 2006)

MonsterCichlids said:


> ^ yes, exaclty, i was going to mention that i would like the species to have a minimal chance of hybridizing with each other. do you think acei will grow too large then to have a group in a 75 gal with other mbunas?


Long term yes but they will produce huge numbers of fry before they become too big. If not too dominated by others. Not seem em cross with other Pseudotropheus but then Pseudotropheus is such a catch all that have not yet been given a genus that this is hardly suprising.

They are not regular Mbuna. They kind of live away from the highly competitive rocks on sunken tree falls.
They should only be mixed with smaller or peaceful guys or they get domminated despite thier size.

I think in a 75g you would have a great time with em as a species tank where they do best. You could mix em with Labidochromis caeruleus and Pseudotropheus socolofi without too much rediction in breeding.

Think even a peaceful Metraiclima like Metriaclima estherae or Metriaclima greshakei would dom the tank and reduce breeding of others though breed like mad themselves.

Kind of goes without saying but if looking to breed on a real big scale you go species tanks.

All the best James


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## rockerzepher (Apr 11, 2012)

Whatever 3 choices you may come up with, I recommend you put in place a long term plan of upgrading to a breeding tank as a 75g tank will not do eventually. Most mbunas multiply quite fast.


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## MonsterCichlids (Jan 25, 2012)

okay sounds good thanks for all the great info. I'm not going to try and mix more aggressive species in there, as i would like more of a calm comfortable atmosphere for breeding purposes. I have mutiple 15 gallons with sponge filters set up for fry, so i wouldn't let it become too over populated in the 75 gal, and id be bringing them over to the pet store i work at pretty frequently so that should work out alright. I saw a tank on youtube that was just labidochromis caeruleus and pseudo. socolofi and it looked really cool. The socolofis were their normal color phase and were not the albino veriety, so becuase of the black stripes on the fins, the socolofi looked like they were blue versions of the yellow labs.


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## cantrell00 (Oct 30, 2010)

I just set up a 75 with Labs, Cyno Hara Nkhata Bay & Ps Acei, Luwala and it has turned out really nice. The purpe/yellow on the Nkhata and Acei Luwala really accent the Labs and vice versa. Very peaceful also.


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## brinkles (Jan 30, 2011)

You'll be doing the hobby a favor by putting more peaceable fish in the store's tanks!


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## cantrell00 (Oct 30, 2010)

brinkles said:


> You'll be doing the hobby a favor by putting more peaceable fish in the store's tanks!


Unfortunately, they sell color moreso than behavior. That is without a doubt why you see Auratus so often...


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## brinkles (Jan 30, 2011)

True.


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