All Male Tank vs. Breeding Tank...Help!

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MonsterCichlids75

Candiru
MFK Member
Feb 15, 2012
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Boston, MA
hey guys, I'm stuck... I'm looking for some opinions/past experiences on which would be a better option for my 75 gallon tank.
I just can't decide whether i should do an all male peacock & peaceful hap show tank, or to do a single species breeding tank. One you get awesome colors from almost all the fish, and the other you only get 1 or 2 really good looking males and the rest drab females. But, being able to see the breeding process and raise up babies is an awesome thing too.. If i were to do a species only breeding tank, it would be a Copadichromis borleyi tank. They are my absolute favorite of the malawi haps/utakas. I'd have 1 nice male and maybe 4 females. The thing is that in this case i would only have 1 real pretty fish, and less fish overall compared to an all male tank. With the all male tank i could have all diff. species of gorgeous peacocks and ahh i just can't decide...please let me know what you think about which you would do, or if you've had experience doing both types of set ups, which was more rewarding for you?
thanks everyone!
 
not all females are drab and ugly. if you wanted a species tank you could do borleyi. I wish I'd known about the females of those when I did my initial stock.
 
jrthor_85 said:
not all females are drab and ugly. if you wanted a species tank you could do borleyi. I wish I'd known about the females of those when I did my initial stock.
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Yeah that's true, I actually find the female borleyi to be one of the better looking female haps, I like the females nice orange fins! I don't suppose there is any way to have 1 male and a few female borleyi in the tank with a bunch of male peacocks right? Would that turn into World war 3 because of the presence of the female borleyi?


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Well I think its more of what do you want. You seem to like the idea of a breeding tank, if so, go with it. When doing breeding tanks I think species only is always best. I do think all male tanks are easier to keep with, and no extra fry tanks to worry about. It just depends on what you want to do. Both seem like fine options imo. When you have breeding groups its not always the case that they will lose colors. I have had peacock groups where they all still had nice coloration.
 
Ash said:
Well I think its more of what do you want. You seem to like the idea of a breeding tank, if so, go with it. When doing breeding tanks I think species only is always best. I do think all male tanks are easier to keep with, and no extra fry tanks to worry about. It just depends on what you want to do. Both seem like fine options imo. When you have breeding groups its not always the case that they will lose colors. I have had peacock groups where they all still had nice coloration.
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Cool, I just may do the borleyi breeding tank but the all male tank is still fresh in my mind. Here's a quick question for you, in a tank of all male peacocks of different species, will all the males show their very nice colors even after the most assertive male takes his place as the dominant male of the tank?


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All male tank is awesome..... I used to have all male tank in a 10 ft tank, lets just say the compliments from friends and family never stop. Unfortunately some haps will get too big for the 75 gal, buy the cichlids that doesnt grow too much and you can put a nice collection on a 75 gal. Lighting is also very important to show their colors....
 
You can breed more than one species in a 75 gallon tank. Just make sure the two species are not very closely related to prevent hybridization.
 
I don't know if Copadichromis borleyi will try to breed with peacocks or not, but I kind of doubt it. I have a male/female peacock and hap tank (125), and of my three male peacocks, none have ever attempted to spawn with my 2 female C. azureus. not even my male haps (vc-10, fusco, fryeri) will breed with them.
 
I had an all male tank once and while a couple of my peacocks didn't show the best color - most of them (the non dominant males) still showed nice coloration. I think that's part of the reason I had kept mine for so long. Just feed them good quality food and put nice lights on the tank to bring out the color.

I enjoyed both my male show tank and my breeding group. I am just not into breeding much anymore b/c it became a pain to try and relocate fry and set up multiple tanks to hold/grow the fry (I went on a downgrade spree and don't want a million tanks running).
 
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