My Mixed Malawi Tank - Current Setup & Plans for Upgrade

[marten]

I'm coming up on three years with my 90G mixed Malawi tank. I started out with 4 breeding groups, P. Electra, Red Shoulder Peacock, Acei and Yellow Labs. I struggled to keep females alive for the haps and peacocks, This was caused by aggression within the groups from what i was seeing, and eventually I decided to try only male haps and peacocks with the 2 Mbuna groups. This is working a lot better, but i still have to move the male Acei to a separate tank off and on, because he can stress out the whole tank when he's in spawning mode.

Current Stock

Male Haps and Peacocks
- 1 Kandango, 1 P. Electra, 1 Red Empress, 1 Taiwan Reef, 1 Sunshine Peacock

Mbuna groups
- Acei - 1 male 4 female
- Yellow Lab - 1 male 3 female

We're planning to move sometime this year, and I'm planning to upgrade to a 6 or even 8ft tank if can find a good spot in our new place. I would want to add more male haps/peacocks at that point to get the stocking right. In the meantime, I'm thinking of adding a few more Acei to get a bit more shoaling action from them, and also try to find another large male peacock to spread out some of the mild aggression I'm seeing with my largest fish (Kandango -> Electra). I think the larger tank will be really good for the Kandango, and hopefully my Acei won't need the entire length of the tank for spawning .

I'd love to hear some thoughts on this, you guys have helped me a ton so far

[DJRansome]

How about the red shoulder? I never found acei to shoal once they were acclimated to the tank...even in 72" inches. I think that is a myth.

[marten]

I had problems with two different male red shoulders i tried with this group. One killed all his females and the other one was just really nasty too, I rehomed him before he killed anyone. I might try a solid blue peacock of some sort.

I find my Acei like to swim together a fair amount even now. It looks like shoaling to me, they swim in twos or threes or else pick at algae growing on the rocks. They're totally different then my Yellow Labs who seem to each need their own space.

[Trademark]

My understanding is that shoaling is done by groups of fish that hang out together and can be comprised of different types of fish. Schooling is a group of fish of the same species that swim together. My yellow tail acei do school and swim together but they also stop and do their own thing as you described.