Help me stock my 75 gallon

[Astoria]

I'm leaning towards peacocks and fell in love with the "strawberry peacock" at Petsmart. I will probably buy those but want to add lots of color.

Please give me a list to include how many males/females of each. I have Texas Holey rock in the tank with sand and rock.

 

[Jexnell]

Typically African Rift lank tanks are done one of two ways.
Most common I believe is the all male version. In this tank you have one individual from many different species. These are normally overstocked as compared to CA/SA tank. This is to spread any aggression around.
The other version is a single species tank with males and females of the same species shooting to breed them.

So we need to know what way you want to go?

 

[DJRansome]

All male is popular but difficult. I am 100% behind Astoria's plan to get males and females. Get 1m:5f of the strawberries. Female peacocks are drab, but the hybrid Strawberry is aggressive enough to have peaceful mbuna as tank mates. I would do 1m:5f of Labidochromis caeruleus (yellow labs) and 1m:7f of Pseudotropheus Acei. Red, yellow and periwinkle.

The above (20 adults for mixed gender in 48x18) is the correct level of overstocking for Lake Malawi.

 

[Astoria]

All male is popular but difficult. I am 100% behind Astoria's plan to get males and females. Get 1m:5f of the strawberries. Female peacocks are drab, but the hybrid Strawberry is aggressive enough to have peaceful mbuna as tank mates. I would do 1m:5f of Labidochromis caeruleus (yellow labs) and 1m:7f of Pseudotropheus Acei. Red, yellow and periwinkle.

The above (20 adults for mixed gender in 48x18) is the correct level of overstocking for Lake Malawi.

This sounds interesting. I just want 4 or 5, maybe 6 different species/colors.

 

[DJRansome]

I would not do more than 4 species in a 75G.

If you do all-male think in terms of 12 species because you can only have one of each with no look-alike fish. Also you will have to rehome fish that don't get along over the first two years or so to end up with a compatible mix so have extra tanks with all-male and have a rehoming plan. Finally even when you have a compatible mix, all 12 will not show full color as the one dominant fish will be brilliant but the lowest fish in the pecking order will have subdued colors.

 

[ativa01]

I'm not sure I would trust any mbuna with peacocks, even the semi-aggro types like yellow lab. But it might work with the right individuals.

If you do combine the 2, you will need a lot less Texas Holey Rock than an all-mbuna tank.

 

[Astoria]

I'm not sure I would trust any mbuna with peacocks, even the semi-aggro types like yellow lab. But it might work with the right individuals.

If you do combine the 2, you will need a lot less Texas Holey Rock than an all-mbuna tank.

I ended up with

Yellow lap
Red shoulder
Blue ahli
Red spotted severum
Lemon Jake
Strawberry peacock
Red zebra? He's solid bright orange
Ruby red peacock
And I forget the name of this catfish but they don't get very large, he also stays in the holey rock and has some spots. Its not my squeaker cat either

 

[DJRansome]

?

 

[ativa01]

I ended up with

Yellow lap
Red shoulder
Blue ahli
Red spotted severum
Lemon Jake
Strawberry peacock
Red zebra? He's solid bright orange
Ruby red peacock
And I forget the name of this catfish but they don't get very large, he also stays in the holey rock and has some spots. Its not my squeaker cat either

Maylandia estherae? Good luck ?

 

[Astoria]

Here he is