First Rift lake setup :) -Compatability-

[Whitetip]

Hi guys, I've finally had my pond arrive and over the next few months I will be building my ultimate little paradise. I plan to have the pond encased in a square timber box with sand filling the top few centimetres of the box and a few well placed polished stones and Buddhas to create a zen garden around the pond. There will be a fake rock wall rising up a metre or so above two sides which will have plants like Venus fly traps, Sundews, Pitcher plants and succulents growing on it and a small waterfall cascading into the pond from it. Now that we all have that wonderful image, time for my question. I want to stock five Malawi species with 1 male to 4 females as the ratio. I have these three species picked out so far and was wanting anyone's advice on if they would be suitable for each other. There is going to be at least 2-3 caves per fish to provide security and ample room to live. The species are as follows.

•Pseudotropheus Demasoni.
•Aulonocara sp' Albino.
•Labidochromis Caeruleus.

I really do have my heart set on these three so I'm hoping they will be compatible. Also if anyone would like to suggest any other species that grow around the 5 inch mark, are colourful but not the same colours as these and would make good additions, please don't hesitate to suggest some. Here is a photo of my pond just because I'm so happy I've finally got it


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[Ading522]

Hi, and welcome to the forum.. i think its the first time I have seen someone from overseas join the forum.. but welcome anyway, a lot of great info and stuff to learn here as well as great people! quick question, how many gallons does the pond hold? and i think you are the first person to do a rift lake setup in a pond..(or maybe someone else has already, that i wasnt aware of) as for the three species you have mentioned for compatibility, they will work together..but carefull with the demasoni as in small numbers they can still be mean.it would be better to provide the male demasoni with plenty of females, as they can beat the females to stress and death if they are not ready to mate.. on the 5" mark of malawi species, you can try some rusties (iodotropheus sprengerae) and maybe a group of haps..

 

[cichlidaddicted]

Yeah the demasoni may bully the aulonocara. In the wild they inhabit two very different environments of the lake the mbuna (demasoni, labidochromis) stay in the rocky enviorment their whole lives while most aulonocara prefer the intermediate zone between the rocks and sandy environments. Your best bet would be to try to recreate this in your pond so they don't have to compete for territory. Might be cool to create the rocky areas around the adges with a very claer boundary working its way around the rocks to a sandy enviornment (with some rock) in the middle. Sounds like a cool project good luck! What kind of albino aulonocara do you want? I would stay away from jacobfribergi because they to are rock/cave dwellers that may inhabit the same niche as the mbuna. Just my thoughts but I'm no expert.

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[WendyFish]

I keep peacocks with demasoni, and they're fine. The demasoni don't regard them as conspecifics given their very different body types and the peacock's eventual larger size. To cichlidaddicted's point, with their different swim spaces/feeding habits they don't get in each other's way too much, even without setting up a DMZ.

In fact, I have had multiple peacock males function as great sheriffs once they get full size - when the demasoni get to fighting, the dominant peacock male will often go break it up. I assume this is because he's the biggest one in the tank and doesn't want others fighting for dominance.

I keep an albino red cheek pair in my demasoni tank and they're fine, also very pretty. Labs and demasoni are viewed as a classic combo, so you're fine there. I will reserve my lab hating (this time ) but there are a lot of really cool orange and yellow mbuna to consider - I'd encourage you to grab a book or find a website with some lists and photos and fish around.

 

[Forester]

Welcome to the forum!!! My cousins live near Sydney and they say that it's great there.

 

[hollyfish2000]

I'd suggest p. acei -- either yellow or white tail over the demasoni. I'm not a fan of their temperaments. I wouldn't do a peacock colony with the two Mbuna groups. Instead, I'd do a nice male peacock or even a hap as a sort of accent fish. The silver peacock females won't add anybcolor to your set up.

 

[cichlidaddicted]

Ime mixing of mbuna and aulonocara never worked. On the bright side the more I read the more apparent it becomes that this is totally situational. Some people have no issues others have disasters (me). There are mamy variables that could play a part in this...tank size, fish size, tank setup, tank stock (type of fish and number of fish), gender of fish and proportion of males to females.....I could go on. I can say I have tried on several occassions to mix mbuna in with my haps and peacocks with not so great luck except with labidochromis, pseudos never worked and demasoni were like I said situational. If the demasoni start out bigger they never gave the peacock the chance to grow to the point where it would take over dominance.

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[Rasta Fish]

Depend on the amount of space you have it may work
Although I would not keep the labs and the Demasoni
If you are looking for blue color fish i would recommend
•Aulonocara sp' Albino.
•Labidochromis Caeruleus.
*****''Phenochilus Tanzania***

 

[Ading522]

*****''Phenochilus Tanzania***

nice suggestion..those are nice fish too!

 

[Tony]

Remember all that he is in Australia and import laws are extremely stringent. As such, the selection of non-native fish is very highly restricted compared to what is available in most other places in the world. I'm sure finding those three species was neither easy nor cheap.

I think that those selections would be perfect in a large outdoor tub. Having just experienced two ice/snow events in the last few days, I'm quite jealous of not only being able to keep those fish outside, but also the plants you mention.

Good luck and welcome to the forum.

 

[F22]

Should have no issue mixing mbuna with peacock species. Just remember the more fish you add to the system the more it splits up the aggression allowing you to enjoy your fish not watch them get beat on.

Have you considered adding any tanganyikan fish to the pond?

In my experience a group of neolamprologus brichardi do very well with what you plan on keeping. I have also had great luck with variabilichromis moorii

If you are iffy on keeping different lakes together may I suggest some red top aristochromis?

Anyway. Best of luck and I look forward to seeing some pictures of this project.


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[AquaStudent]

Might be cool to create the rocky areas around the adges with a very claer boundary working its way around the rocks to a sandy enviornment (with some rock) in the middle.

I think that would be very neat to see. You have the space for it. One of my dream builds is to have a large Rift tank setup similar to that (or raised pond).

In fact, I have had multiple peacock males function as great sheriffs once they get full size - when the demasoni get to fighting, the dominant peacock male will often go break it up. I assume this is because he's the biggest one in the tank and doesn't want others fighting for dominance.

That's quite interesting! It makes sense though. You're hypothesis seems reasonable.

Welcome to the forum. One of my professors is over in Australia for a conference. We had to take our final exam early because of it (which is actually quite nice). That's fantastic that you're able to set-up an outdoor AC pond.

The only similar project I've heard of is people in Hawaii doing outdoor SW ponds (which sounds really neat!). Good luck with the project and I hope you find this to be a welcoming and informative community.