New additions to the rift tank, please help!

[Farlap]

Hey everyone long time fish keeper first time poster.

I have kept multiple tanks before and every kind of cichlid but could never get a good cichlid setup going. If you could please put any input in it would bre greatly appreciated.

My current setup is:

4 foot tank, 265L

nearly 3 x filtration with plenty of circulation (towards the upper of the tank) (1 canister 2 x internal filters)

Substrate: white sand (I forgot the exact name)

Plenty of driftwood

A few bits of holey rock (I will get more when adding new fish to the back of the aquairum)

Low lighting conditions

4 x blue dolphins (1m 3f im fairly sure)

3 x cuckoo multi

1 x cuckoo petricola

The fish I would like to add to the tank are either (In a group):

Hongi

Red zebra

Red Empress.

I have kept hongi and red zebra together and that was great entertainment, as well as red empress and blue dolphin which was also great entertainment.

My questions are:

Q1: Could I keep a bristlenose or clown pleco in the tank (Have had other bristlenoses in other tanks before) or will the catfish eat all the food before it could get any??. I dont have any alage besides the brown stuff on the rocks from water changes.

Q2: If adding 4 Hongis or 4 red zebras, would they be aggressive towards the cuckoo since they hang around the same territories(My petricola would be fine, has been with mbuna before and was the boss though the multis have not )

Q3: To add a bristlnose, 4 mbuna (either RZ or Hongi..or both?) and 4 more haps (red empress) would this be too much? I know haps get big but I would assume they wouldnt reach their full size in my tank.

Any help would be appreciated I really want to get a good setup going this time.

[malawi sand diver]

Hi there and welcome.

I have kept bristlenose before with africans and they can survive, however they will do better in different conditions IMO. e.g. they will like more wood and a lower PH. The other fish (e.g. mbuna) will also eat their algae wafers first.

If it were me in that tank I would ditch the driftwood, replace it with Holey rock and concentrate on the synodontus and Malawi. As you would know the synodontus are active at night and like to eat when the mbuna are asleep, so dropping in a couple of pellets with the lights out at night is sometimes a good idea so they get a feed. Then it might be best to get another tank for your bristlenose and clown pleco and throw in most of your driftwood from the other tank.

The fish you mention will get on fine with the the cuckoos.

For the 4 footer I would get rid of some or all of the driftwood, as it will lower the PH.

With your mix of fish, when they get larger, the Hongi and red zebra will dominate the haps, for that reason I usually try to limit the amount of mbuna so the haps such as your red empress show good colour - personal preference I guess.

Good luck with your tank set up.

Regards, Rob

[rosco]

Hi and welcome. I have bn in all my African tanks for cleaning etc. They always get a crack at the food and they frequently breed in there. If by clown pleco you mean l168, they will not survive in the hard water for long.

I agree with Rob in that you should remove the wood it will soften the water too much so use rocks instead. The cuckoos will be fine and are cool fish.

Cheers

Rosco

[n3wbi3]

I also have a gold spotted pleco with my set up... heap of holey rock. To be honest I have never tried to feed my pleco.. his always eating the algae from the rocks. Does a great job too. Bought him at 3cm now his at 15cm and still growing.

Doesnt come out much at day but at night his a busy fella.