150 litre, is it too small??

I absolutely love yellow labs and would love to eventually change my whole setup from a community tank to this eventually. I would like to get a much larger tank but due to current commitments and the birth of my son this wont be for a few years yet I reckon. Although Ive got my eyes on this....

http://www.allpondsolutions.co.uk/aquarium-1/fish-tanks/cabinet-aquarium-fish-tanks/open-top-cabinet-fish-tank-aquarium-270-litres-120cm-4ft-three-colours.html

My question is to the more experienced cichlid keepers would my current 150 litre tank be too small? If not how many do you think would be ok and what mix of cichlids and other fish would you recommend?

that would be fine as for fish you can have more than a community tank as they are quite aggressive but the aggression is taken away by having more fish sounds a bit strange but when one decides to have a go at another fish it will chase it and the more fish there are the aggressioin is difused i have loads in my tanks and have bristlenose plecs and synodontis

Yeah your tanks big enough they only max out at 4 inch so you could have quite a few :welcome: . Micks right more fish = less aggresion. It does sound wrong but its been proven to be right many times.

they sometimes get bigger ive got 5" fire fish and 5.5" mumbo rocks and dc10s which can grow bigger

his tank is a 31 x20 x24 look at how many are in there

Yeh a shudnt of said maxed out 4 inch. A should of said the adults ive seen.

most of these are still young 2" or smaller there are a few 3-4" and they are breeding like wildfire
if you look on my malawi list so far thats whats in my tanks normally buy them in x6 at a time

Nice fish mick. Alot there

Thats great, I think ill see if there is anyone out there that wants to swap my community fish with plants for some cichlids and rocks etc eventually...
I've read that they should be kept in groups of more females to males but how do you tell which is which if buying them young?

when you go to buy them make a list of the ones you buy then if you start with just a few you can recognise them in the tank then as you build up you remember the new ones the same way and so on

i get mine from the auctions its alot cheaper that way
as they never look like the adults till they grow up

So are the auctions even cheaper than buying directly from private breeders?

most of the time its an auction so it can be as cheap as x4 fish £2 but the rarer ones can to £10 for 2 or more
but these are local breeders selling them anyway
next auction is febuary 16 th i think in sunderland again
ill be there as normal

Thats good to know, are they large events? What would you recommend as a good mix of cichlids? Baring in mind that they must include Yellow Labs.

for the size of tank (150) ltr i would stick to what they call mbuna these only grow to about 6 inch with some only growing to 3 inch best to check out some species before you buy some species in the mbuna are
labidochromis
psuedotropheus
cynotilapia
melanochromis
labeotropheus

here is a link with a few species and info
http://fish.mongabay.com/mbuna.htm

i have a few types of these for sale as young including Labidochromis caeruleus (yellow labs), psuedotropheus redtop hongi, orange blotch labeotropheus trewavasae.

Cheers thats great

when they are young the males show colour pritty quick but most of the females look the same a drag grey with black markings it gets hard after watching loads swimming in a tank of different ones who is who

I like the look of the Electric Blue Johanni cichlids

Labidochromis caeruleus (yellow labs), psuedotropheus redtop hongi, orange blotch labeotropheus trewavasae. melanochromis auratus. psuedotropheus elongatus mpanga, all have good coloured females along with many others you just need to have a look about to see what you like but then its finding them lol

Good luck with your new prodject ul have to keep us updated to see what you choose.

Cheers guys I will do. Might be a little while yet. Get Christmas over with first I think but it's defo on the agenda! Think I get bored too quickly I've only just planted it up! Could do with 10 tanks I reckon. Shame Mrs Paterson won't allow it though haha!

Haha same here mate same here!

Cheers for that site by the way dandy it's fantastic, really useful!