How is this done? I've been searching and can't find how. Do you buy say 3 fish of species 1 and when you get a male toss it into the main tank then move to species 2 and keep doing so till you have your 10-15 males? Or do you toss 10 species into a large tank all at once and take out all but the males? Or buy just males?
How to do all male hap peacock tank??
- Thread starter Jag586
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Usually with all male tanks its easier to buy fish already showing some male color. It's more expensive but you get what you need without worry about getting rid of extra fish. You'll want to add 3-4 each time, if you add one the others in the tank focus their aggression on the new guy.
I agree but please do a lot of research before you decide to do this if you are a beginner use forums and youtube for resources.
+1
We are running a 120g male utaka/vic tank right now. Some pointers
- No mbuna... they are much more aggressive/territorial.
- Adult vics should be much fewer in number as they are more aggressive/territorial than most Utaka
- Pay attention to life history traits... predatory utaka will eventually become a problem for smaller and less aggressive species.
- Some species tolerate conspecifics, others do not.
- Do your best to size-match or the smaller fish will get bullied
This is our current setup:
This is Bichir Girl's tank to stock/decorate, she hasn't had much time lately to make it pretty, but she does have plans for beautifying it LOL. It is 4x2 120g running on two big sponges and an fx6 full of biomedia with bi-weekly 75% WC. We've had lots of parasite issues with this tank as a result of buying males from all over the place at different times and lacking a space for QT, so something to watch out for. There are also catfish and small bichirs in the tank. Another tank in the fish room (a 75g) is being used as a grow-out for this tank... so I think we are done buying fish for this tank now!
Yea I read that you have to choose the correct fish, they can't really look alike and such, it's a small idea I have to do might look more into might just let it go now that I have the answer I was looking for, I never knew how it was done
Don't let this intimidate you. When we got started with keeping Africans we didn't know much about them at all and just gradually learned about them. We can spot the functional morphological differences between species pretty easily now and make good decisions on what will work for us. And this is all made much easier now by smart phones while you stand in front of a tank at the LFS. Or the web looking at an online list.
Thanks! Bichir Girl is planning to add more rock work in the future... that will probably be accompanied by a reduction in the amount of substrate.
Honestly it is not that difficult, the key is to get a large number to spread aggression and get ones that are in the size range. Also take your own advice and keep just peacocks and haps, I see several people mixing them with mbuna, victorians, tanganyikans. While some people report great success, I have also seen the damage mbuna can do because they have actual teeth. Predator Haps would also be something to avoid unless you have a bigger tank to separate them into later on as they grow much bigger than your average peacock and small species of Haps. I use to keep large rocks and structures to offer hiding spots, but found that it increased aggression. Some of the "tank bosses" would become territorial and attack any cichlid that came near their "spot". Aggression has gone way down since I removed structures. I just have my Universal Rocks 3D background and sand now.
Thank you so much for the replays, I was thinking of doing a single fish tank but I think now I'm either going to do an all male hap peacock tank or a mbuna tank. Once I build the stand I'll make the final decision
Mbuna is more difficult than haps and peacocks because they are more aggressive. It's easy to plop 12 haps and peacocks in a 75G...the hard part is first managing aggression, and once that is under control, then getting all/most to color up. Takes about 2 years of tinkering to get a stable mix. Have a spare tank and a rehoming plan.