Help stocking my new Lake Tang. tank

[HaikusCalvus]

im setting up a new tank, 55gal, 36Length

im moving my 2 balck calvus there and 1 syno. petricola. i wanna add 2 or 3 more synos,

buy i dont know what else to add, one thing i know for sure is that i want them all to get along, i get stessed out when fish are constantly attacking each other.

i wanna ad some fish that would take up the middle and top of the tank also, but it seem that all lake T. fish are bottom dwellers,

any suggestions, ...????

... i like the daffodils can i put some of those in??
there are a few that look like daffodils, which should i stay away form???

[Troy]

HaikusCalvus : A 55 gal is a great tank for Tangs. Have you considered any of the Julidochromis family or Neolamprologus Leleupi it is hard to find a more brightly colored cichlid from lake Tanganyika. I also recommend Aulonocranus Dewindti a group of 5 or 6 but only one male.

Neolamprologus sp. Daffodil is also though to be a color morph of N. Brichardi. It is peaceful and can hold its ground in any Tang tank with larger tank mates. It likes the shadows, caves and plants. It is not an generally seen out in the open ground of a tank. A beautiful cichlid! IMO.

Remember to be careful about how many rock-dwelling/ substrate-spawning Tanganyikan cichlids you put in your 55 gal. Hope this helps, Cheers..... T.C.

[sidguppy]

instead of stocking up on rockdwellers, you might think about adding Paracyprichromis nigripinnis; aka Blue Neon.

IMO daffodils are too agressive for that tank; all "brichardi" like cichlids spawn like rabbits, let siblings stay near to form family-groups with the elders and as a result form HUGE territories!
definitely a fish for a huge tank (75G, 100G, bigger) with sturdy tankmates (Tropheus, Lepidiolamprologus, Ctenochromis, Cyprichromis sp Jumbo etc)

leleupi's too are quite feisty with a fairly large territory, but it might work. Same for Neolamprologus cylindricus wich behaves exactly like that, and who should NOT be combined with leleupi.

Definitely add a few petricola's; as a 4-6 group they do much better and show up.

Easy fish to combine with Altolamprologus and petricola's inlude all kinds of shellies, like ocellatus, multifasciatus or brevis (those 3 are the best to start with)
again: put only 1 -ONE- species of shellie in that tank!

others are the smaller Juli's; Julidochromis dickfeldi, J ornatus or J transcriptus (but NOT J transcripus Gombe!). again; only a single Juli species.
Telmatochromis species are greatly overlooked and much easier and more peaceful than Juli's; T vittatus, T brichardi (most sold as "bifrenatus") and the new Zambian Telmatochromis are very nice. 1 species per tank.....

Juli's and Telmatochromis often quarrel, so best choose, not combine.

Aulonocranus is active and needs room to swim; iot's sandnest is family-pizza sized......how roomy is your tank? floordimensions?


Your tank can easily hold your calvus, 3-5 petricola's, a pair of Juli's or Telmato's and 6-8 Blue Neons (of wich 2-3 males, rest females). This way you have very different looking fish, and colors too (Blue Neons!)

best news: this peaceful colorful fish is an open water dweller and does NOT use the floor!

[tanguy]

I too am setting up a new Tanganyika community. I already have a N. leleupi, a pair of N. brevis and a pair of J. transcripus Gombe and was wondering why sidguppy excluded this "race". Is there a problem with them generally or does the problem relate to compatibility with HaikusCalvus' fish.

I love to know more about this particular type of J. transcriptus.

Also is Neolamprologus caudopunctatus a good choice for a 250 litre set-up with my existing fish?

I've really enjoyed reading all your posts so far,

thanks

[sidguppy]

J transcriptus Gombe doesn't exist; it's a misnamed dwarfvariety, and SHOULD be called J marlieri Gombe.......

And that's your fly in the ointment; it really behaves like a true marlieri too; boisterous and often quite agressive, especially if you have F1's wich I did.

On the other hand; 250L is enough to keep those fish you list, and you might add some more. I'm not so sure about grounddwelling caudopunctatus with L brevis together; the docile brevis might get a very hard time.