Stock

[albert_dao]

Also, in the future, if you want to add fronts to the tank or even grow out fronts with them, this would work as all the above will grow to 5-7 inches each.

I'm thinking those C. moorii & N. venustus will get a tad bit bigger than 5-7".

Hey Tom, just my 2 cents worth, but if I had a 185 sitting around (uh yeah, don't I wish) I'd fill it with 20 C. moori juvies (and remove any extra males as they mature, keeping perhaps 3 males and the rest females), and 20 of the best yellow lab juvies I could find.

Great color, lots of action with the labs (yet no serious aggression), and in a larger tank of that size the moori will school, just like in the wild. Also, both of those groups have females that show great color. IMO the perfect blue/yellow combo for a larger tank of that size.

Cyrtocara moorii juvies are easy to find, but good quality yellow labs are a bit more difficult to locate.

I'd like to see one over 7". Hell, I'd pay a pretty penny for that.

[RD.]

The moori, or the venustus? I've seen 9" moori, and 10" venustus, but I don't think they're for sale. :hey:

[albert_dao]

I have an uncle who has 5 venustus in a 200 gallon for 8 years and counting now and they are 7" tops. Maintanance is par to none (I do it) and they are fed a trillion times a day.

I can say likewise about moorii.

My point here is that I just have serious doubts about the AVERAGE size of these fish exceeding 7" under normal, no, most household circumstances.

[RD.]

Mature fish sizes comes down to the strain, the conditions they're kept in, and the amount of protein one feeds them. I've seen 7" yellow labs (and yes, they were ugly!), so a 9 or 10" full grown 'male' moori or venustus certainly isn't too hard to imagine.

If you look around online, I don't think you'll have any problems finding moori males that exceed 7". Here's a male that's 9 1/2" (24 cm) at 4 years of age. (kept in a very large tank)

http://www.malawicichlidhomepage.com/haps/...ra_moorii13.htm

N. venustus are usually rated at a max of 10", some people even list the max as 12" (for adult males)

http://www.bigskycichlids.com/Nvenustusx.htm

If you flip through the photos on this profile page, you can see Marc Elieson's 11" male.

http://www.cichlid-forum.com/profiles/species.php?id=1160

Edited October 21, 2004 by RD.

[dunl]

Won't touch the moorii comments, as I'm not versed in them, but yes, venustus will easily get 10".

I would consider a 7" venustus male a runt.

[albert_dao]

*drooling*

We once had a gorgeous 8" electric yellow at the store. For whatever reason, our big male henlyei ray decided he'd make a lunch out of the poor guy.

Anyway, I'm still skeptical of venustus reaching those sizes on a regular basis. I just haven't seen it, and I know a lot of venustus keepers. I know they get that big in the wild for sure, but again, captives (most anyway) seem to not have the proper lineage or something (excuse my terminology if it's out of place here).

[RD.]

I'm not sure about on a regular basis, but in the original comment they posted about "5-7", and I did think that was somewhat misleading. The males of both those species can get big, a lot bigger than 5-7".