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Some good haps


Lepperfish

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Hey guys, I got a 4x2x2 stocked with mbuna..

I do have 2 haps in there, a blue dolphin and a nimbochromis Fucsotaeniatus.

Im considering stocking some more haps in there.

Can anyone recommend me something suitable.

Cheers.. raisehand.gif

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i think the fusco is far from suitable. i would go as far to say extremely unsuitable.

i would add otopharynx to duckstas list, most of them have good temperaments.

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I agree with Gav,

Depending on the current size of the Fusco, if it's kinda small it's all good at the moment, but as it gets to eating size, well!!!

Those Mbuna are going to look mighty good. shock.gif

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Hey Lepper

People like Duckstas knowledge is superior to some books tongue.gif

maybe the book is out dated?

Better to learn of other peopels experience rather then other stuff me thinks.

Sometiems books are wrong, becasue the auothors might not have had experience with that fish..

Cheers

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Hey Lepper

People like Duckstas knowledge is superior to some books tongue.gif

maybe the book is out dated?

Better to learn of other peopels experience rather then other stuff me thinks.

Sometiems books are wrong, becasue the auothors might not have had experience with that fish..

Cheers

Hey danielk..

Im not saying the others are right nor wrong.

Just showing what I found in a book.. btw which is not outdated.

And what might not work for ducksta or someone else could be perfectly fine in my aquarium.

I asked for opinions and for that im truly gratefull..

raisehand.gif

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Well, according to my quick in-head calculations, your magic book says you need a tank 140% of your current tank size, regardless of tankmates? But you seemed to ignore that line?

Anyway, there are mbuna, and there are mbuna. You have asked a general question. The general answer to which is, he is going to eat them (or do some damage trying) eventually.

Now of course depending on exactly which species of mbuna are present in your tank, the fusco might be appropriate, but you didn't offer that information straight off the bat. I stick by my comments, unless you have some of the large and aggressive mbuna species, such as Melanochromis chipokae, or even just some of the large Labeotropheus types. But for a general population of common small-medium mbuna, a fusco is just going to end up in problems.

Not all mbuna are even compatible with other mbuna, so answering non-specific tankmate questions is never going to be gospel.

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What are you talking about a magic book? . I merley wanted to point out what I saw in a book. Why is it magical ?

Why are you having a dig at me, because I showed you something you didnt like.?

I value your comments and opinions and I dont know why you try to cut me down.

Yes I do not have as much as experience in fish keeping ect as you..

But I think I should be allowed to ask questions without people like you making me feel inferior because you have more knowledge.

Like I said I wasnt disagreeing with your statment.

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Don't take it personally Lepper, Ducky is giving you some good advice, he's just got a funny way of doing it sometimes.

He's right on the money though, there are mbuna and then there are mbuna smile.gif

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I do apologise, it was supposed to be funny more than insulting or degrading. I was just pointing out that books say alot of things, and much of it is absolute rubbish, and has been proved so. No 1 book has all the answers, just as no one member here does.

Like I said though, the more information you provide, the better we can weigh our advice on the matter to suit your individual circumstance. But I assure you that 100% of times when the general question is posed "Can I keep Nimbochromis sp. with my mbuna" most experienced hobbiests would say "Not for long"

And dont worry so much about "people like me" cutting you down as I'm one of a kind woot.gif

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i guess my comment on fuscos and mbuna comes from me keeping them. my male fusco I used to have would happily munch down any fish that was around 10cm or under. if it was a little bigger, he would just kill it. he essentially would kill anything in his line of sight if he thought he could, no matter what the size or species. the females would take out anything under about 8cm and beat up other fish as well. now this was in a 6x2x2 so there was plenty more room than a 4x2x2. my male spent a lot of his time in a large floating basket I had, as it was the only way I could stop him harassing his girls to within an inch of their life.

I honestly think that fusco is going to be seriously bad news for you sooner than you realise. what you may not realise, is that it is impossibly hard to move a large male fusco even if its free, as their reputation precedes them.

when I was breeding fuscos, a great majority of shops gave me the same answer when i was trying to sell 5cm fry. something along the lines of "no thanks, i dont want fuscos cos they kill bloody everything."

make of that what you will smile.gif

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I'd agree with the comment that a fusco will be unsuitable to be with mbuna.

My female fuscos were more aggressive than most hap males are (from my experience etc)

they fight between each other all the time and not little tiffs, they have big punch ons.

I had them in a 4 footer for a little while before they went to the 6 footer, but they were with other large haps.

Fights still occurred.

On the selling side though I haven't had any trouble getting rid of fry so far:)

big ones might be a different story.

Great looking fish though...

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Hi all

I've been reading this post with some interest because I have male Fusco in an 8x2x2 with larger Haps and Utakas (ie F.rostratus, C.azeurus, Red Emp, C.moori, etc) plus some 'non-large Mbuna' colonies (ie. Salousi and Maingano). I set the tank up about 8 months ago and the Fusco is probably around the 15-17cm mark now. Apart from being a bit of a pig has been the perfect gentleman. Awesome looking fish too.

Mostly, I can't even catch the fish in this tank and so the experiment will continue. So far the Mbuna are happily breeding and a number of the fry are surviving. The reason I attempted this mix is that when I lived in Adelaide there was a shop on Anzac Hwy that had a 8x2x2 display tank with a fully grown male Fusco. There were plenty of Mbuna in that tank and even a breeding colony of N.brichardi. The Fusco used to just cruise around the top of the tank and pretty much leave the other fish to their own devices. I saw that tank a number of time over 2-3 years.

Anyway, if a massacre occurs then I'll let you know about it.

Cheers

Richard

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Richard a couple of key points I have found in your post.

1. He is currently living with larger haps.

2. He is only ~17cm.

3. Your tank is double the size of Lepper's.

As everybody has said from the start, we are forecasting future problems.

Sure it may work now for you, and as you say it has worked in the past, but IMO that is a long way from it being at a level where I would recommend the practice.

My sister has a dog, which sits in the chicken yard and doesn't hurt any chickens. She also has 40 odd dogs that would destroy the lot before they realised they had wings that semi-work.

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Ducksta

yup, aware of all that. Let's put your piscatorial knowledge to the test. What's ya forecast on my tank? To be fair, here's a pic of it from a few months ago. Also, I don't intend to add any new fish.

I know that fishtanks are complex and dynamic systems, and so I wont hold it against you if you baulk from the challenge blush.gif

Cheers LOL.gif

Richard

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My prediction would again be carnage, at least for the smaller fishes. The mbuna look to have good places of refuge. But remember, Nimbo's specialise in hunting mbuna in the wild. I think for your mbuna it will be survival of the smartest. If you did get to have a couple of self sustaining colony's happening that would be fantastic, but I think with only 8' of room, the Hap's will ultimately have their day, and full bellie's. Of course if the pump out enough fry for him to hunt, the adults might be safer for longer, especially if they get some of that extra bulk on them like adult mbuna can in tanks.

However, you may have lucked out and latched onto a Nimbo that cannot hunt. I have never seen it happen and it wouldn't last long in the wild, but who knows, anything is possible in this crazy hobby.

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Richard, ive seen that tank your talking about, and i don't remember seeing a Fusco in there. The two largeish haps that were in there were D.Compresiceps and D.Strigratus. This was about 3-4 years ago up untill about a year ago when alot of the fish died. The mbuna that were in the tanke were a huge Albino Grasheki, and a couple of e-yellows, the rest were haps/peacocks, N.Brichardi and 2 archers. I think there were a couple of other mbuna but they were quite large. This was also a massive tank. How long ago were you talking about? Sorry im not trying to say you are incorrect i'm just clearing up what you said.

Anthony :8

PS: Was an awesome tank apart from the marrigold peacocks (hybrids). They have revamped the tank now and 2 of my ex e-blue males are in there that i sold to them.

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Ducksta, cheers for playing along. As I said in my first post, it's too hard for me to mount a rescue mission, and besides I've got nowhere to put them.

AdelaideAnt, with the Anzac Hwy aquarium, it was definitely a Fusco but the time frame I am talking about was more like 1997-2000 - 5 to 8 years ago, so maybe you missed him. Hey, maybe the owners got sick of him snacking out on Mbuna tongue.gif

Cheers

Richard

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I think the size of the tank (8x2x2) might actually end up playing into the Fusco's hands in the end anyway.

They seem to be more effective hunters with a bit of room to spread their fins.

15-17cm isn't that big yet, but you can guarantee that one day he will be the big man on campus in that tank.

If you added a female or two he would probably already be causing a little trouble.

What till he is over 25cm.

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