# Setting my old african tank up again.



## eddy (Jan 16, 2009)

I just moved so I have a few aquarium projects underway. I just drug my 75 gallon african tank up out of the basement today.









I'm not real experienced with africans but I have kept peacocks and haps before. I know I don't want peacocks again so I'm thinking

1. Yellow labs(I still have a large wild caught male that has been visiting my SA waiting for his tank to go back up.
2. red zebras
3. I am looking for a blues fish here. Maybe melanochromis cyaneorhabdos. Will this work? Or are there better options to get my blue? Any fry produced here would just be feeders.

Also I am interested in going in a different direction so that I can breed without without cross breeding (a yellow lab group would be involved here)

I would be very interested in suggestions of fish I could successfully breed while housed with yellow labs without crossbreeding?


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## MalawiLover (Sep 12, 2006)

Well, if you wan t labs and not having hybrids, then the red zebras are a no go.

The Melanochromis cyaneorhabdos would definitley work well with the labs. The ever popular Ps. demasoni are also a great companion for a lab group. Other popular and compatible blue species would be Ps. socolofi, Met. callainos (cobalts) or Cynotilapia sp. "hara" (White top Hara, aka Gallireya Reef). You couls also do athird species like the black acei (either Ngara white tail or the Tanzania black) with the labs and a blue species (thats what I have in my 95-labs, cobalts and Tanzania acei)


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## eddy (Jan 16, 2009)

Yeah Labs,red zebra,melanochromis cyaneorhabdos or cobalts is what I would like too have but i would like to find something similar that I could breed which leaves the red zebra out.

What could I do instead of the red zebra that is less likely to crossbreed but still bring a 3rd bright color that is not blue or yellow?


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## MalawiLover (Sep 12, 2006)

Other than the red zebras, there just aren't really any Red species (that are available in the hobby). Some species have males with some red, but the females of the Red Top species (Lab. hongi, Met. grasheki) tend to be very drab.

Another otion would be bright white, Albino Ps. socolofi are quite popular and are rather striking. Unfortunately red wave lengths filter out in water pretty quickly so don't really work or the fish themselves making the most common colors the yellow and blues.

There are some Victorians with some red, but again the females are not really colorful.


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## ridley25 (Jan 5, 2008)

eddy said:


> What could I do instead of the red zebra that is less likely to crossbreed but still bring a 3rd bright color that is not blue or yellow?


I would go with Labeotropheus fuelleborni or Labeotropheus trewavasae as a third species to compliment labs and maingano - with those big noses, hybrid fry would be easy to identify!

kevin


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## MalawiLover (Sep 12, 2006)

Except most of the males are in the blue range (really red Mpanga males are hard to find in many places) and the females are still pretty boring.

While it is true that the nose will definitely make the hybrids stand out, those species don't really fit the look the OP is looking for.


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## ridley25 (Jan 5, 2008)

Living vicariously, I guess. I love these fish and don't have any.


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## eddy (Jan 16, 2009)

I guess going with the yellow labs,red zebra, And melanochromis cyaneorhabdos doesn't totally eliminate a successful spawn.

The melanochromis cyaneorhabdos would still likely produce purebreds right?

It would be a shame to not be able to breed the beautiful wild caught yellow lab though.

I guess another option would be to go with my male yellow lab and get all female red zebras and and several female labs.

Then I could be sure when a yellow lab female spawned it was with my wild caught.

Does that sound like it would work?

That would give me.

1. F1 yellow lab fry (assuming I can come up with some wild caught females)
2. Pure melanochromis cyaneorhabdofry
3. Crossbread lab/zebra fry that would only come from the female zebras and be easily sortable.

Would this work assuming I don't let anyone spit fry in the tank?


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## MalawiLover (Sep 12, 2006)

I do beleive you have a good plan. You will also be skipping the super aggression of the zebra males, by having all females. Plus the females red zebras tend to be more on the reddish side while the males will fade out to an orangy cream color in most cases.

It will require some doing to weed out any males from the zebras (unless you can find some females of the BlueXRed Minos Reef variant) and don't start distributing the lab fry until you are sure their are no male zebras lurking.

Even if you ended up with cyaneorhabdos hybrid, it will be very obvious from the start.


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## eddy (Jan 16, 2009)

MalawiLover said:


> I do beleive you have a good plan. You will also be skipping the super aggression of the zebra males, by having all females. Plus the females red zebras tend to be more on the reddish side while the males will fade out to an orangy cream color in most cases.
> 
> It will require some doing to weed out any males from the zebras (unless you can find some females of the BlueXRed Minos Reef variant) and don't start distributing the lab fry until you are sure their are no male zebras lurking.
> 
> Even if you ended up with cyaneorhabdos hybrid, it will be very obvious from the start.


 Yeah that sounds like a plan thanks for the help. I might just grow the zebras out in a separate tank so I can be sure I have all females ...Like I said I don't have alot of experience with africans but I have enough that I have seen fish I thought were for sure male spit fry lol.

It's getting hard to feel safe sexing them with some of the suppliers giving them the hormone treatment.


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## MalawiLover (Sep 12, 2006)

Well with labs and red zebras being monomorphic species, the only way to tell is venting. So even without hormoning you can't tell by eye (at least until they are fully adult, and by then it can be too late to stop hybrids).


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## eddy (Jan 16, 2009)

MalawiLover said:


> Well with labs and red zebras being monomorphic species, the only way to tell is venting. So even without hormoning you can't tell by eye (at least until they are fully adult, and by then it can be too late to stop hybrids).


 Yeah I guess your right. Peacocks are the ones that gave me a fit with the hormones.

Either way I will be certain there are no hybrids distributed.

I do quite a bit of local selling and trading with my SA and I certainly don't want to tarnish the reputation of quality fish. These days it is getting hard to come by a place where you can be sure you are getting exactly what you are paying for and I for sure want to remain one of those places where people can be absolutely sure they are getting a quality fish.


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## MalawiLover (Sep 12, 2006)

eddy said:


> Yeah I guess your right. Peacocks are the ones that gave me a fit with the hormones.


Yep me too.



> Either way I will be certain there are no hybrids distributed.
> 
> I do quite a bit of local selling and trading with my SA and I certainly don't want to tarnish the reputation of quality fish. These days it is getting hard to come by a place where you can be sure you are getting exactly what you are paying for and I for sure want to remain one of those places where people can be absolutely sure they are getting a quality fish.


Keep up the good work. :thumb:


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## eddy (Jan 16, 2009)

MalawiLover said:


> eddy said:
> 
> 
> > Yeah I guess your right. Peacocks are the ones that gave me a fit with the hormones.
> ...


 Almost done I happen to be in the area of the place I prefer to get my fish which is about an hour away so I picked them up even though I wasn't quite ready. I guess the fry will just be feeders until I get the males weeded out. Ignore the visible equipt i just had a little more sump work to do.
7 red zebras and 7 melanochromis cyaneorhabdos so far.

this is from the front door as soon as you walk in.

























my wife wants to add fake plants think i should let her?


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## MalawiLover (Sep 12, 2006)

eddy said:


> my wife wants to add fake plants think i should let her?


If you like them too go ahead. If you don't, sjow her some pics of lake malawi (underwater shots). No plants at all except algae on the rocks. Yours is much more "natural" for an mbuna setup as is. (not that any of your fish have ever seen Lake Malawi, but that reasonoing worked for me. No plants in the mbuna tanks.)


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## eddy (Jan 16, 2009)

MalawiLover said:


> eddy said:
> 
> 
> > my wife wants to add fake plants think i should let her?
> ...


 I don't really care for plants. Here is what I had in mind


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