The Setting up of an - Malta Aquarist Society

The Setting up of an
MBUNA Tank
Jeffrey Bezzina
Introduction
• Interest in Cichlids following presentation at the club
last year.
• Wanted to setup a cichlid tank but with a particular
biotype.
• Wanted cichlids that don’t grow too much due to the
tank size.
• Wanted relatively easy, colourful and hardy cichlid
species.
What’s
MBUNA ?
TONGA PEOPLE (Africa)
MBUNA means :
Rockfish
In the native language of the Tonga People of
Malawi.
LAKE MALAWI - AFRICA
Some Facts on Lake Malawi
•Greatest variety of indigenous species than any other lake
in the world
•Lake Malawi is the ninth largest lake in the world. And the
third largest lake in Africa.
•Its around 700m deep.
•There is a native people population Explosion.
•Economic value of the lake (valuable resource).
•The Malawian lake-shore culture poses more pressure on
the lake.
•Continued harvesting of large quantities of fish.,
Mbuna Tank biotype
Mbuna Tank biotype
The water.
The water in Lake Malawi is slightly alkaloid and medium hard, with a
relatively high content of dissolved salts
The Tank
An Mbuna tank can’t be smaller than 1 meter in length.
Filtering
Due to aggression Mbuna tanks are often heavily stocked, so effective
filtering is important.
Heating
23-26 ºC
Lighting
No Particular lighting required, this is only needed to stand out Mbuna
fish colours, usually a combination of white and blue lights are used.
Decoration
Rocky backgrounds + piles of rocks make a truly an Mbuna setup.
Substrate
Fine sand a layer of 2 inches depth is fine.
Plants
No Plants required because the Mbuna envirionment lack plants
however one can introduce Vallisneria which is the only commercially
available plant from the lake Malawi.
Mbuna Tank Filtration …..
Due to over-stocking and Mbunas being messy
eaters ….
One can setup ……
a Combination of internal and external canister
filters.
Or a Sump ..
Sump advantages
• It Increase the water volume.
• You can put more mechanical and biological media.
• Can be used to hold fry or plants.
• Eases maintenance and water changes.
• You can hide equipment such as the heater or UV filter.
A simple Sump Setup
Mbuna Fish Characteristics
The “Mbuna” (i.e., rock-dwelling fish) are a large
group of Cichlids that live among large piles of
rocks along the shoreline.
They are usually seen in large groups, but are by
no means a schooling fish.
Mbuna are very colourful, whereas other fish
species, only males are colourful.
Mbuna Fish Characteristics
• Their diet is vegetarian based. In the wild they
live on algea and small crustaceans.
• They do best in hard water with high alkaline
content.
They are aggressive/territorial and not fit for
the community aquarium.
Mbuna Fish Characteristics
• Mbuna are small and tend to have flat faces,
which enables them to better scrape algae
from rocks.
• They are maternal mouth brooders and
breeding is not always difficult.
• They suffer from Malawi bloat.
Breeding
• Given the right water conditions Mbunas will breed easily.
• There is no pair formation or bonding between the
prospective parents.
• The dominant male will quiver in front of the female, who (if
receptive) will lay her eggs on a flat surface and quickly pick
them up in her mouth.
• Mothers should be removed to a safe secluded aquarium of
their own.
• A bit difficult to catch however
Aggression
• Over-crowding is encouraged (filtration should be optimal).
• Male to Female ratio – ideally three females for every
males or five females for two males (in some cases no
males will be tolerated by the dominant male).
• Introduce all cichlids as Juveniles all at one go.
• Plenty of caves, crevices and shelter for females or subdominant males.
• Low temperature contributes to less aggression.
Some Mbuna Fish Species
Electric Yellow Lab (Labidochromis Caeruleus)
Some Mbuna Fish Species
Demasoni (Pseudotropheus demasoni)
.
Some Mbuna Fish Species
Golden Mbuna (Melanochromis auratus)
Some Mbuna Fish Species
Powder Blue (Pseudotropheus socolofi)
Some MBUNA Fish Species
Bumble Bee ( Pseudotropheus crabro)
Some Mbuna Fish Species
Kenji ( Metriaclima lombardoi)
Some Mbuna Fish Species
Afra cichlid (Cynotilapia afra)
Some Mbuna Fish examples
Red Zebra Cichlid (Metriaclima estherae)
MBUNA Family
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
Abactochromis Oliver & Arnegard 2010
Cyathochromis Trewavas 1935
Cynotilapia Regan 1922
Genyochromis Trewavas 1935
Gephyrochromis Boulenger 1901
Iodotropheus Oliver & Loiselle 1972
Labeotropheus Ahl 1926
Labidochromis Trewavas 1935
Maylandia Meyer & Foerster 1984. (syn. Metriaclima Stauffer, Bowers,
Kellogg, & McKaye 1997 [3])
Melanochromis Trewavas 1935
Petrotilapia Trewavas 1935
Pseudotropheus Regan 1922
Tropheops Trewavas 1984
Mbuna tank setups examples
Mbuna tank setups examples
Mbuna tank setups examples
Mbuna tank setups examples
Mbuna tank setups examples
Mbuna tank setups examples
Questions ?