I think I want to switch my 90 gallon from a mbuna tank to SA. I have really fallen in love with my apistos and I'm loving the relaxed nature of them. I was thinking of getting some blue rams for the 90 and selling all my polits and demasoni. I was thinking of angels too, but I'm not sure about them.

Any input would be great! Sorry mbuna lovers. I guess I'm having a change of heart.

Don't apologize for wanting to switch, Rena.

Mbuna can get frustrating over a period of time.

I don't think I would go with the angels, however.

From what I hear, they can be pretty aggressive themselves.

What about this solution to your getting rid of your polits and demasoni.

Sell the 20 and get a 29 gal or a 30 long and keep the demasoni or polits.

Just a suggestion because you might miss the Mbuna's down the road and
those particular Mbuna can be hard to come by.

Just a thought!

Yeah I've seen angels chase the crap out of some other fish in my sisters 60g tall. She gave them up and went with mbuna after that!

That's a good idea! I have a 10 & a 20 gallon with filters, lights, hoods, heaters and heck even sand!!

Or I could just keep the mbuna in the 90 and talk my husband into letting me buy the 125g 6 footer Drooly on sale at the LFS for $200 for the SA's!!

I would like to keep the mbuna, I do love their colors but I'm so overpopulated I can't stand it anymore! dumb dumb I could just sell all of them and get my LFS to ship them all out for me the same day, but for a really hefty cost. worry wart!


:Help!: I don't know what to do!! :Help!:

I like your option of the 125 gal.
Think your husband will go for it?

You know you women have ways of getting us men
to do things for our ladies!

Take the overpopulated fish to the LFS for store credit
against the 125 gal.

I just wanted you to think about your decision a little more
before you got rid of them because Kim regretted getting
rid of her demasoni.

Good luck and I hope you get your new 125, if that's what you want!

The 125 is what I want but he's already said no twice now! I guess I'm SOL there. Although I can kinda see where he's coming from. We really don't have anywhere to go with it except the basement and I already got my 90g this year. We just picked up a small hot tub (220 g) and I told him that I was gonna turn that into my new tank! On the Floor Laughing

I wish I could take my fish to the LFS for store credit but they don't do that there anymore, which I think is crap! Grrrr

Well I guess I have some long and hard thinking to do! Faint

First Kim and now you too cturner. :Sad:

I just can't believe it. Faint

If you press your hubby for that 125, would he give in and maybe let you get a 75 as a consolation? You could still keep your mbuna in that!

It's a tough decision. I can't imagine not having mbuna, but it would also be nice to try something totally different.

Go Rena go the Clap the Clap the Clap

Widen your horizon, there is whole different world out there to discover Good Job

I'm getting this visual of Klaus in a cheerleading uniform with pom poms...It's isn't pretty... worry wart!

Correna, keep both...

You can utilize smaller tanks for the apistos and rams, and my thought is that you might be better satisfied with your large mbuna tank if you took back the numbers on your demasoni and polits and added a couple more species for more colour.

If you can't take them to your LFS, post them in the trading post over on CF and here. You should be able to move them to individuals easily with a bit of effort, since polits and demasoni aren't always readily available.

I love my SA's, but I have to have a tank of mbuna going, too! I really like the way I have things right now, with a mbuna tank showcasing my favourite mbuna, and the SA's and CA's mixed together in another tank for now. (That gives me my community planted tank fix...) Then I have a smaller tank with a trio of peacocks for my peacock fix, and two grow out tanks running with little ones. I'm really enjoying the variety, but I don't think I'd feel that way if I did away with one specific group.

My guess is that by keeping the two dwarf species with the dull polit females, you're getting bored. All the demasoni look alike, then you've got those gorgeous polit males, and all the brown females. Not enough colour to keep you entertained...You can keep a minimum of 10-12 demasoni, and one male polit with 4 or so females. Then, you could stock the tank with a couple more regular sized mbuna species for extra action and colour.

And, you shouldn't have to stick a tank off in the basement if you don't want to by using smaller tanks for the apistos and rams!

Kim

Thanks Kim, for giving me this picture ----> Gimme an A! (Klaus)

But I think I'm over my mbuna phase. I went through the peacock phase, the preditor phase and the CA phase. I'm surprised that I stuck with the Mbuna phase for as long as I did! It's not that I have too many mbuna, well I do, but I would like one big beautiful planted tank with some pretty fish without doing just common freshwater. I think of it as expanding my horizons with live plants! Lots of em!!

Thanks for the advice & ideas!

I'm just gonna make the plunge! swimmin Maybe some year I can talk the hubby into getting a bigger tank then we can have a mixed mbuna tank again. He loves the coloring of the male venestus!

Good luck with the new set-up and have fun.

Do you have a good idea of what you want to stock yet? There are an awful lot of good choices with the South Americans too.

Aesthetically speaking, you can't be a nice planted tank...There's just something much more "soothing" about watching a planted tank and the occupants going in and out of the plants.

I have to admit that my planted community tank gets alot more of my attention than my mbuna tank!

And Aura and I will be happy to guide you in your plants and plant care! roll eyes

Kim

So I made the jump, but into discus! I've read up on them as much as I could for the last couple of weeks and I have started with 2. 1 is a blue diamond snakeskin and the other is a pigeon blood. They are still pretty small about 2.5 - 3". I will be adding more next weekend.

Here's some not so pretty pictures I took this morning before work.

Girl, when you take a plunge into a new horizon, you
really take a dive!

Great choice and now that we have Discus Hans to seek advise
from, then you should have great success!

Was it much trouble to get your water parameters in line?

I know, it was a little much! But then again if your gonna do something different you should do what would really make you happy! I liked the discus and so did the hubby and I really wanted to get him back into the hobby so what other way to do it!

No problems actually. I went from 8.0 ph out of the tap to a 50/50 mixture of distilled water and my tap water and got the ph down to 7.2! I was so nervous putting them in last night that I had my husband do it! These discus actually came from Discus Hans but through my breeder here in PA. So it's refreshing knowing that they had a good start from the beginning! Wiggle it just a little bit!

Thanks Discus Hans!! Good Job

Rena

Rena, one more question.

Will you be making your own distilled water for water changes?

Congratulations Rena the Clap the Clap the Clap the Clap the Clap

I can promise you that you will not miss your mbunas. Good Job

PB I'm not sure how to do that yet, but I am looking into it. Do you have any tips??? Hmmmm


Thanks Klaus! So far so good, actually I'm very excited to see them grow!

Klaus, I heard something in your tone of voice when you said that!

Cturner, that's really exciting. My daughter has been wanting me to try discus for quite a while now, but I just ended up with so many mbuna that I didn't have the space for anything else.

That's cool that they came from Discus-Hans. You should post some pics in his area so he can see how his little ones are doing.

:blink: Aura, I have no idea what you are refering too. Please explain........ Now this should be good!

Angels would go with the apistos and rams well. The angels are more midwater and the others are bottom fish so they won't compete for territory, just have plenty of caves for the apistos and rams...or they will be the ones competing for territory. Also the angels would give some interest to the middle of your tank.

lol, thats what I get when I think I have read the whole thread! Discus are a good choice with rams and apistos too. Just don't let your water changes slide with them, they can be sensitive to any change in water chemistry. They aren't as difficult as they used to be as there are many generations of tank raised now. 7.2 is fine for discus, just remain consistent.