# Mbuna fry control



## taeniopareius (Oct 2, 2007)

I have a large and quite heavily decorated tank with explosive population of mbuna fry [hard to take them out manually]. Is there any predator that would be good at hunting Mbuna fry but not big enough to eat adult demasoni-size mbuna?


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## metricliman (Sep 3, 2012)

What size tank do you have and what is the stocklist?


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## taeniopareius (Oct 2, 2007)

about 200x90 cm tank with 6 membe deep and about 8 tropheops redfin and about 70-80 fry of various sizes...


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## metricliman (Sep 3, 2012)

So the tank is 200 centimeters by 90 centimeters? 
You could try adding some synodontis catfish.


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## taeniopareius (Oct 2, 2007)

which species? And won't they [if Tanganyika species] cuckoo most or all the mbuna's eggs? I think I would like to be able to get holding membe deep for striping from time to time  Any Malawi/Tang/other predatory species that can hunt down fries?


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## metricliman (Sep 3, 2012)

I believe petricola and luccippinnis don't cuckoo and eat fry. There are some Malawi predators, just not sure about the compatibility.


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## Dan Gardner (Jul 23, 2012)

How about S. Fryeri (electric blue)? Not sure about compatibility with your mbunas, but they do the job you're looking for.

http://cichlid-forum.com/articles/s_fryeri.php

From the species profile on this site: 
"In nature, S. fryeri are piscovores, often specializing in hunting Utaka or mbuna juveniles. "

"This species is a true piscovore, feeding on very small mbuna & Copadichromis spp."


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## metricliman (Sep 3, 2012)

That could work. Just for reference, the tank is 78"x35".


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## ratherbfishnjp (Dec 21, 2011)

the petricola and luccippinis cats will more than likely only take NEW fry.. once they are in there for a couple weeks they wont eat them. Im sorry but how big is your tank converted in ft? If it is big enough, your gonna need a biggerhap like the livingstoni... they will eat all your fry up pretty fast.. unless like i said, your tnak isnt big enough. I would still get maybe 5 or 6 petricolas to take care of your newly spit fry but in order to get the rest you need something that is preditory on small mbuna or fry that has been in your tank. Question is do you wanna spend your money on a bigger Hap!?


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## metricliman (Sep 3, 2012)

78 inches by 35 inches, so around 6' by 2.5'.


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

Having keep all three types (petricola, lucipinnis and multipunctata) I can tell you the multipunctata are best at fry control. And although mine have produced fry in the tank (2-3 individuals in 7 years)...it's infrequent and there are still 1000s of mbuna fry available if you remove the holding mothers.

Trust me the mbuna will grab all available fry. The advantage of the cats is that at night when the mbuna sleep they predate on fry that were hiding in the rocks during the day, but at night are asleep on the substrate. So they get more of the stray survivors.


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## master chi (Jan 3, 2010)

I've been keeping One S.fryeri in my Lab,RZ, Rusty tank for some time now.Probably close to a year.
Since adding him I have went from a couple survivors per holding female to absolutely zero .
Actually my wife now complains because she doesn't ever see baby fish in the tank anymore. They used to find hiding spaces in the crevices of my DIY background. 
The fryeri seems to have a knack for getting the fry in those crevices where other mbuna will eat them but only when one comes swimming across the open.

Once my Cyno Haras are grown out im going to put the Labs in a colony tank and place the Fryeri in my all male tank. Because even though he does well and no one bothers him I do fell he would thrive more in a different tank set up


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

It's true that the synodontis get the NEW fry. If you already have a load of older fry, I think you will need to get them all out one time and then the cats will handle the situation ongoing. Never tried a fryeri with mbuna...interesting.


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## Michael_M (May 31, 2012)

Didn't Fogelhund have a group of fryeri with a group of red zebras?


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## ratherbfishnjp (Dec 21, 2011)

yah that is something to look into DJ... im kinda interested in that also. *** got some small swimmers around in my holey rock. PLUS another bonus is you may get some synodontis fry if your lucky!! I found 6 stuck in a piece of holey rock. talk about a bonus!!


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## taeniopareius (Oct 2, 2007)

Thanks. So it is either Lake Tang synos or midsize predatory haps then.


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## taeniopareius (Oct 2, 2007)

Wonder how about smaller Lepidiolamprologus [a single fish]? Does Neolamprologus sexfasciatus really eat other fish too?


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## metricliman (Sep 3, 2012)

I wouldn't mix Tangs with mbuna.


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## taeniopareius (Oct 2, 2007)

why?


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## metricliman (Sep 3, 2012)

The tangs have such a different personality than the mbuna.


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## taeniopareius (Oct 2, 2007)

If I take out the larger fry the aquarium won't be quite busy. They still get in each other's way?


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## metricliman (Sep 3, 2012)

what are you asking?


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## taeniopareius (Oct 2, 2007)

Mbunas would beat up the lone Lepidiolamprologus or vise versa?


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## metricliman (Sep 3, 2012)

From what I've heard, the Tangs don't quite "get" the mbuna and don't understand the cues that the mbuna are giving, like "get out of my way". So the mbuna would probably kill the Tang.


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## rhox55 (Jan 20, 2011)

I took in a friends tiretrack eel and put it in a 47gal with flavus and greshakei. Two days later no more fry. Everything gets along fine with it and adds some interesting action to the tank.


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## Kanorin (Apr 8, 2008)

Synodontis multipunctatus are extremely effective at eating new fry, as has been mentioned. Orders of magnitude better than any predatory haps. But they'll only be able to eat fry under ~1/2 inch.


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