Breeding blue dolphin cichlids in community setting?

[Plum7]

Hi
]
I was wondering if anyone here has any luck with breeding blue dolphin cichlids in a community tank? read and heard somewhere that they are shy fish and slow growers.I just bought this 7.5 inch male blue dolphin from my LFS. They had 3 large blue dolphins The LFS had 3 large male dolphins including thiI have 4 females ranging from 3-5 inches and a 5 inch smaller male. I got the 3 bigger females from a private sale and one small 2-3 inches from The same LFS they had 3 7-8 inch dolphins. I was told that in general if you want breeding its best to start off a new batch of baby juveniles? I bought these fish from different sources and was hoping to breed them but was wondering would that work for near full grown t blue dolphins? Also despite the big male being added he seems to be very timid and docile at the moment. will this work out them breeding if i give them time? Figured my small male was too small to breed with the larger current 4-5in inch females

Also my other smaller 4-6 inch male likes to really follow this bigger male dolphin as well. Is 6 dolphins ok? 4 females and 2 males? or more females? so far my 2 males get along well with the bigger dolphin.

 

[DJRansome]

What are the other fish in your community? Sometimes a timid species is intimidated by tank mates even if there is no actual aggression.

How old is the large male? Sometimes a large fish is near the end of his life span.

 

[Plum7]

What are the other fish in your community? Sometimes a timid species is intimidated by tank mates even if there is no actual aggression.

How old is the large male? Sometimes a large fish is near the end of his life span.

I currently have:

4 rostratus 1 large 9-10 inch male fully coloured up 2 smaller males and 1 smaller female
5 clown loaches
2 livingstonii confirmed male and female pair spawned multiple times
4 uaru unknown sexes
2 cuban cichlids male and female, male keeps courting female
6 frontosa unknown sexes
5 other dolphins 4 female 1 smaller male

The uaru rule the tank followed by the cubans They stay more on one side and don't bother the dolphin unless he ventures into their territory then they just chase him off. The large male rostratus might be partly it because he swims back and forth constantly and he does at times chase all the dolphins around sometimes him too but usually the females and especially the smaller male dolphin. Don't know why he never looks at or bothers the smaller rostratus group.

I just only added this large dolphin 2 days ago so perhaps he still needs much more time to settle down and get comfortable? and i was not told how old he is, will go back and ask the place i got him from but I'm going to guess around 2-3 years based on his size? That is how old my 3 larger females are, I believe males usually grow much larger and faster than females at the same age?

All the fish get along great just some normal chasing around but never extensive bullying they are all around average 3-7inches mostly. A few fry from the livingstoni survived even survived as well. I think this male dolphin falls somewhere in the middle of the pecking order, he does chase charge at the other 5 dolphins at times too. Even if they never breed they look so nice together the 6 of them shoaling around.

 

[Plum7]

What are the other fish in your community? Sometimes a timid species is intimidated by tank mates even if there is no actual aggression.

How old is the large male? Sometimes a large fish is near the end of his life span.

oh forgot to add also 1 male zebra Victorian cichlid as well

 

[DJRansome]

Is this a 72" tank?

Definitely don't worry about lack of spawning until fish are in the tank for more than a year.

However, if you still have problems then, consider these options.

I did find the latifasciata to be too rambunctious for my timid haps even though they were recommended as something that should work. Things improved for me (when I had all-male with timid haps and peacocks) when I removed him.

No idea what impact the non africans could have.

You need multiple females (1m:4f) or no females for any Malawi you have in the tank to manage aggression. So that means fix the ratios on the rostratus and nimbochromis. Even with the right ratios, IDK if either of these could be too aggressive for the dolphin to color well and feel dominant enough to spawn.

Even without adding females IMO you have too many fish in the tank, especially considering the large species. If the dolphins spawning is the priority, I would tweak the stocking.

 

[Plum7]

Yeah thinking of tweaking the stocking, yes its a 72" tank. I had to swap this large male for another male which is smaller as i discovered the first male was not perfectly healthy. Only just added him in and he also is chased a little bit as well. I noticed this new male he has much darker blue hues than the first one i got and more than the 3rd male that the LFS has, all the dolphins i got so far are mostly lighter coloured. I do also want to take out the latifasciata cichlid as he does harass this new blue dolphin, he tries to bite him.

You are right they are too rambunctious to be with timid haps. my zebra does seem to chase some of the fish around mostly towards the dolphins. They seem to be all over the place i think he is a problem as well since the dolphins are timid around him but he is not towards the dolphins.