Leleupi with mbuna?

[TimB]

I will be setting up a new 6ft tank soon with some grumpy mbuna and I want to know if it is possible to house a few leleupi with them??

Thanks in advance,

TimB

[dogboy]

Hi TimB,

while the purists will tell you to keep Tangs with tangs and malawi with malawi i see no reason why you couldnt as long as they are aggressive enough to handle Mbunas as long as you keep the water hard and provide plent of rocks for them to hide in. leleupi are awesome fish and plenty of LFS sell them and most probably dont know they are tangs.

[fishinf]

hi me personly would not breed them as i had put shells in my mbuna tank before and when they got scared they went in the shell and would kill each other as about 3-4 would go in one shell and they would die as they trap each other in the shell.

and my guess is if the mbuna dont kill each other they will kill the lelupi

[Priscacara]

I have kept N. lelueupi with a mix of different of Africans without any problems. My biggest fish were blue dolphins around the 18cm mark and I never had any problems. You wont get many fry to survive if they spawn, I did get 1 lucky one I found when I emptied the tank. I also had julidichromis juveniles and adults in the same tank so there was a bit of chasing when they got in each others way but it was only showing off nothing ever serious.

[TimB]

thanks for the input guys!

[mcloughlin2]

They work well with almost every readily available cichlid providing your tank is a suitable size. I've never had them breed in a community tank though.