Stephen Zawacki Posted October 16, 2023 Share Posted October 16, 2023 (edited) Hey guys so have a question I went on a few month hiatus from fish keeping a bunch of my tanks from college got sabotaged and could never get recovered and I got frustrated so took a break. I decided and went to one tank I started about a month ago a tank with Msobo Mbuna an I LOVE THEM!!. First off they are so much better than saulosi they are more personable and in my opinion more beautiful dimporphic species. My local fish store once. I re started my tank letted me know they had three males and 8 females. So I got all of them for 60 bucks which is a steal. They are currently in my 32 gallon fluval flex with rocks and Crrib sea cichlid substrate. I have a few questions. First being is I have found through a lot of reasearch and I mean a lot there is almost no solid info on them? So I want to know have any of you guys kept them. Some of the little information I did find is they are extremely rare in the United States. Also that they are about 1 inch bigger than saulosi other than that nothing else. So any other information please enlighten me!! I l will post pictures tonight I have 1 dominate male already displaying great colors while the 2 other coming along and the females are a gorgeous yellow also. Thanks Y’all!!!! Edited October 16, 2023 by Stephen Zawacki 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fish Folk Posted October 17, 2023 Share Posted October 17, 2023 While they are being bred a lot in FL, I'm not finding much technical taxonomic information on them. Here is a nice little overview. I would highly recommend feeding a diet that includes a lot of greens. Omega One mini sinking "Veggie" pellets are an excellent balance meal... I found that my Mbuna would actually enjoy eating duckweed from time to time. They were not as eager as goldfish, but the greens were excellent for their digestion. It appears like the younger the females are, the brighter yellow they'll appear. Once they mature, they will turn more of an orangish hue. If you've never bred mouth brooders before, you might enjoy looking up some simple methods for separating females out so that they will hold successfully, and "spit" their fry into a healthy, peaceful environment to thrive. I've set holding female Mbunas into structurally dense 10 gal aquariums before to hold. That's a nice size space for fry to begin life in. Once a breeding group gets going, some Mbuna fry will survive in an adult tank. If all you'd want is just an added new Cichlid now and then, you can let them go and just enjoy new little additions every once in a while. They'll likely savagely eat most of their fry. George Farmer has a some beautiful ideas for designing tanks with hardy plants that Rift Lake Cichlids will not utterly destroy. It's worth seeing his ideas! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben P. Posted October 17, 2023 Share Posted October 17, 2023 What info are you looking for? I also have a species of mbuna right now that I can't even find online what color the females are supposed to be so I understand your struggle. First if you've never kept mbuna, understand that they are very aggressive and love lots of rock work in their tanks. Secondly you need a vegetable based diet primarily. Absolutely no blood worms. My food circuit for them is Xtreme spirulina, Xtreme krill flake, repashy soilent green, algae wafers, and a bit of tetra color flakes. Just pick a different one every day and mix it up, they love the repashy though. I would also suggest a dither fish for a bit until they get their spaces established, I'm using a small group of white clouds. Other than that just understand they will probably eat f every plant you put in there. Also do you have scientific name for them? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stephen Zawacki Posted October 17, 2023 Author Share Posted October 17, 2023 Ok I will get some more food right now I’m feeding a mixture of xtreme krill flake and beef heart flake and they go bonkers for it. Is that ok? Also I’ve been just trying to get more info that’s all and i bought lots more rocks today too. All I know is that they are Msobo Mbuna. Too I’ll try and do digging for a scientific name too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben P. Posted October 17, 2023 Share Posted October 17, 2023 Cut the beef heart immediately. You will likely give them Malawi bloat. Mbuna are primarily a vegetable eating species. If you give them too much protein it is very detrimental to their health. No live food, no beef heart, no frozen for the most part. Actually kinda makes them cheap to feed. If you do want to give them snacks, go with something like cucumber or lettuce leaf 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stephen Zawacki Posted October 18, 2023 Author Share Posted October 18, 2023 (edited) And I am sorry Ok sounds good, I have only been doing it for a few day should they be ok they seem completely fine? And I will go buy the good food food tomrow i have the xtreme cichlid pewee sinking pellets is that ok for them? Edited October 18, 2023 by Stephen Zawacki Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stephen Zawacki Posted October 18, 2023 Author Share Posted October 18, 2023 (edited) Here are the pictures too. They love weaving in and out of the rocks. Edited October 18, 2023 by Stephen Zawacki Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben P. Posted October 18, 2023 Share Posted October 18, 2023 Do you have any good photos of the males? I'm just curious what variety they are such as "msobo deep" or "deep npanga" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stephen Zawacki Posted October 18, 2023 Author Share Posted October 18, 2023 Ill try and get some they are really hard to get love to hide lol That’s the dominate male the dorsal is light teal blue with dark navy blue on top then his face is starting to transition along with his body to the blue hue as you can sort of see. Also he has a blue mask around the eyes if that helps in the identification. I ill try and get a better pic tomorrow this is my dominate male, I have two others that are slowly starting to display too. Thanks for trying to help. Also, are the xtreme cichlid pewee ok for them? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben P. Posted October 18, 2023 Share Posted October 18, 2023 First I assume they are "msobo deep magunga". Also I haven't looked at that food but rule of thumb with mbuna is to keep protein in their food at or below 40% Also I have the best luck taking photos with the room lights off and my tank lights on. As soon as they see much movement, their colors fade extremely rapidly; like within 3 seconds and you can watch it happen. As they become more comfortable in their environment they will be more active. They will likely also take quite a bit of time to truly reach their adult color. Don't get discouraged as you're waiting for them to color up. Also I don't find them to get more personable with time and interaction. Mine are in my living room and even with nightly activity in the room they still panic when I stand up from the couch. They look phenomenal at 8 feet though 😂 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stephen Zawacki Posted October 18, 2023 Author Share Posted October 18, 2023 Ok sounds good haha 😂 and thank you for all your help!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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