New 125 all male peacock and Hap tank

[Eric1115]

I keep most of the fish you mentioned in my 180, the venustsus and eye biter will be less aggressive than the fusco from my experience. If anything they will keep the aggression between them and avoid beating up the smaller fish. I personally find my tank very well stocked in terms of aggression and all the adult males show color and no one is particularly beat up. There is a distinct pecking order to keep everyone in control. Here's my list so you can judge how many fish you can put in your 120. I will butcher the spelling Latin names so I will use nicknames.


Malawi trout. ( not showing color yet but he is way to big for a 120.)

Malawi hawk. ( getting really big really quickly so a 120gal might be too small I have both male and female in the big tank and they get along and are a pretty docile fish)

Venustsus ( Is the most domant fish of the tank but mainly chases the red empress)

Fuscotineous ( youngest and smallest fish but the biggest A -hole in the tank)

Eye biter ( male and female and keep to their own except occasionally pick on the little guys)

Red empress. ( him and the OB are always picking at each other but theres never any damage)
V10
2 OB peacocks
Blueberry OB
Eureka red.
Eye biter
Livingstoni
Blue blood dragon.
Fossochromis rostratus ( no color yet)
Star sapphire
tropheus moliro
And various cats

My in my grow out tank I have
Buccochromis notetenia ( male and females)
Morri


After I add those fish I would consider my tank 100 percent full and a alot of my fish are younge. Having some bigger holes for fish to hide in will make a world of a difference in agression for hap and peacock tanks. I'll attach a picture of my tank for that. I would say you could tank about 2/3 to 3/4 of my list and be full depending on how you build up your rocks.
I would stray away from the hawk unless you plan on keeping very few fish. With haps less fish is better for agression and for 100gal you can put a lot of peacocks in there to make room for your hap tank. I've had luck with a fish every 4 gals on peacock tanks as long as you have plenty of rock work.

View attachment 1411108

Thanks Ryang
The strange thing is I had all these fish in the 125 for months and nearly no aggression.

Then my 100 finished cycle and I started to move some of the peacocks over to prepare the 125 for my wish list. So the stocking got dispersed between the two tanks, instantly I Noticed the aggression level triple in both tank and I lost couple of fish. It started to calm down a little now but still a lot more thanpreviously.

 

[ryang85]

Thanks Ryang
The strange thing is I had all these fish in the 125 for months and nearly no aggression.

Then my 100 finished cycle and I started to move some of the peacocks over to prepare the 125 for my wish list. So the stocking got dispersed between the two tanks, instantly I Noticed the aggression level triple in both tank and I lost couple of fish. It started to calm down a little now but still a lot more thanpreviously.

With haps it can be tricky to find the balance of understocking vs overstocking but if your fish are used to overstocked peacock tank style arrangements you might be lucky and be able to overstock and have less agression. I like the look of overstocked hap tanks but they are very high maintenance. With peacocks I max out what my water changes will do in terms of nitrates as the limiting factor usually. It took me a while to slowly add fish to get a non aggressive level on my hap tanks and introduced some peacocks and all hell broke loose until I took them out. When I switched from my 100gal to my 180gal it took about 3 to 4 weeks for them to settle in and stop beating on each other. Also I keep my hap tank at 76 degrees which makes them all mellow out a bit.

 

[Eric1115]

With haps it can be tricky to find the balance of understocking vs overstocking but if your fish are used to overstocked peacock tank style arrangements you might be lucky and be able to overstock and have less agression. I like the look of overstocked hap tanks but they are very high maintenance. With peacocks I max out what my water changes will do in terms of nitrates as the limiting factor usually. It took me a while to slowly add fish to get a non aggressive level on my hap tanks and introduced some peacocks and all hell broke loose until I took them out. When I switched from my 100gal to my 180gal it took about 3 to 4 weeks for them to settle in and stop beating on each other. Also I keep my hap tank at 76 degrees which makes them all mellow out a bit.

76, I think mine is way to high, I had it at 81 for a long time. I started to lower it and currently at 79. I will lower it further and try 76 and see if the aggression goes down.

I do find Peacock to be a lot more aggressive than expected.
I have a MBuna tank for years and while there are casualties in these years, I still ended up with more fish than I started.

with Peacocks, I started with expectation they are peaceful until what I see now.

now I am starting to understand a little that the aggression is largely depends on individual but also the tank mate.

with another more aggressive tank mate, a fish can be the perfect calm fish but take that aggressive fish away, it can become a terror.

Question regarding managing the aggressions. Have time out ever worked for you? If so how long and how do you reintroduce the fish back in without being target by every other fish?

thanks

 

[A201]

Its been my experience that putting an overly aggressive Cichlid in temporary time out fails long term.
Once reintroduced, the overly aggressive fish receives the obligatory Cichlid slap down for a few days. Upon recovery the noted Cichlid terrorizes his way back to the top of the heirarchy.

 

[ryang85]

Its been my experience that putting an overly aggressive Cichlid in temporary time out fails long term.
Once reintroduced, the overly aggressive fish receives the obligatory Cichlid slap down for a few days. Upon recovery the noted Cichlid terrorizes his way back to the top of the heirarchy.

I've had similar luck. It will work temporarily though and I use it to encourage a less dominant male to breed.

 

[The Morning]

I have a few of the fish on your list in my mixed tank. I also have a handful of mbuna and tangs in there as well. While there is always some aggression I have had very few removals over the last few years. Most aggressive fish in the tank is a jewel but I have it heavily stocked so he rarely targets any one fish. Him and my OB mbuna hang out in one area a lot and chase others away.

 

[Eric1115]

I have a few of the fish on your list in my mixed tank. I also have a handful of mbuna and tangs in there as well. While there is always some aggression I have had very few removals over the last few years. Most aggressive fish in the tank is a jewel but I have it heavily stocked so he rarely targets any one fish. Him and my OB mbuna hang out in one area a lot and chase others away.

That has been my experience with MBuna and so far Peacocks, overcrowding seems to really work for me. Few years for MBuna, full grown fish. For Peacocks not long enough, only few month but big difference between overcrowded vs under stocked.

For Haps, I have 0 experience but am sure I will find out in a few month to a year.

So, I have moved most of my fish into the 100 Peacock reserve tank and ordered my wishlist fish, arriving tomorrow. However, I think I missed considering something.

Now that I have move most of the fish to the 100 and have a few fish in the 125. With the 9 fish coming tomorrow all between 4.5-6 inches. I just realize I don’t have enough space to QT them. Totally lack of planning.

Hope I don’t have to treat anything.

 

[Eric1115]

By the way, I did leave my male Yellow Lab in the 125 with the Haps. It’s not very aggressive but holds its own. It’s about 4 inch. Do you think it will be ok in there or should I remove it also?

I know when the large Haps grows up, they might eat it but it would be a long while, right?

Just loves the yellow and all my other fish are either red or blue.

thanks

 

[The Morning]

Awesome keep us updated with pictures when they arrive. I would like to see their progression.

 

[Eric1115]

Awesome keep us updated with pictures when they arrive. I would like to see their progression.

Wil do