Setting up a hap/peacock tank

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stalefish83

stalefish83

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
May 26, 2015
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Eugene, OR
Hello all,

I've aquired a nice sea view acrylic tank, 60" x 18" and I'm thinking of using it as an all male hap and peacock tank. I'm debating on buying a bunch of juvies and waiting for them to color up, so I'm curious if someone can tell me at about what size to male peacocks usually start to develop their color? I Just want to give myself the best chance of getting males.

I know I'll have more questions as I go along, and pictures will be sure to follow, just want to get some input on this.

Cheers,
Jason
 
Depending on species and tank ranking you may get a few that will have color by 2"-2.5". The more docile species will tank longer. Will you have a place to get rid of unwanted fish once a male shows? I would avoid the waiting a get colored males if possible.
 
Thanks James! This may cause a stir, but sadly the "place" I have for the females is my freezer. Which will further push the recommendation of 'just get males.' As sad as it is, nobody would want to take the drab looking fish (neither my LFS nor craigslist, even free) and I'm not going to dedicate a tank to them. I would certainly try to find a suitable home. Being realistic, (and at the risk of looking cruel) the freezer seems a better fate than living a life in a small LFS tank, not getting sold because they've "matured" and are brown/grey so nobody will purchase them. The alternative being struggling to manage a proper m/f ratio, lest they get bullied to death by the males. Which doesn't sound all that appealing either.

Considering that I'll be hoping to put around 20 fish in this tank, and that it's recommended to put introduce them in large groups, means that I may have to consider dropping $300 for 10 $30 fish... twice. Which may just have to be what happens. I'll be getting them from The Wet Spot in Portland, so at least I know they will be high quality fish.
 
I have had good success in mine only putting 3 or 4 in at a time, it's hard to find males or something that I find appealing in groups of 10 at one time.
 
HEMP111 said:
I have had good success in mine only putting 3 or 4 in at a time, it's hard to find males or something that I find appealing in groups of 10 at one time.
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I did the juvie thing and got what I wanted and saved money also. Just from my own experiance buying some of those sexed out males is fine , but don't be surprised if you lose some. Sometimes the bigger fish did'nt ship well for me.Maybe just my bad luck but just my 2 cents. This picture of my African 240 was mostly all juvies to start with.

image.jpeg
 
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WHITEBEAR26 said:
I did the juvie thing and got what I wanted and saved money also. Just from my own experiance buying some of those sexed out males is fine , but don't be surprised if you lose some. Sometimes the bigger fish did'nt ship well for me.Maybe just my bad luck but just my 2 cents. This picture of my African 240 was mostly all juvies to start with.

View attachment 1186515
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image.jpeg
 
I typically at 3 or 4 adults at a time and it seems to work out. Your tank my look a little empty for a while but you don't have to spend large sums of money at one time.
 
If you go slow, you need several at a time to keep any aggression spread out among the new ones until they get settled in. You may also end up with a dominant one that you will have to pull no matter what you try. I had to pull my largest pink because he was beating on several of the smaller ones. Put him in another tank with several females to hopefully get him to breed.
 
I have a mixed mbuna/ peacock , male and female with lots of habitat. In a 75 gallon. Two 1" fry can produce 20 or so more fish in 9 months.
My 3 female strawberry peacocks, all were bought as potential young males. Until they laid eggs.
They are vivid pink, interestingly they have not crossed with any mbuna. My male fish do chase each other and are starting to fight for dominance.

I have plenty of young juveniles to work with, so culling a jerk fish is easy.
 
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