Lake Malawi Species • OB's in mixed gender tank

[Bamzam]

If I have a mixed gender tank with a few different species and I wanted to add OB's, do the OB's always count as their own species or can they mix with the species they are an OB of? Meaning any OB's I add would need to be their own group with proper M:F ratio? Or for example if one of my species was pure Taiwan reef, can I add a Taiwan reef OB and it would blend into my pure group?

[DJRansome]

The OB can be with pure species, but then you may not want to save fry from any of them. An OB you would likely purchase would be colorful and therefore likely to be male.

If you don't care about fry or selling the adults in the future, you can have an extra OB in the tank, but he would need 4 or more females just for him.

Example,
1m OB and 4f Taiwan Reef
1m:4f Taiwan Reef

So 8 Taiwan Reef females.

[Bamzam]

Perfect, thank you for the clarification. I've heard female OBs can be a little colorful as well?

[DJRansome]

Then you could let the female OB be one of the harem for the taiwan and don't save fry from her.

[jcover]

OB will try and breed with other species, and vice versa. I had a Red Fin Borleyi breed with an OB peacock before. Most haps/peacocks will view other species as potential mates.

[Bamzam]

Ah ok. I have 3 species right now and have found that none of them interact with each other so far. The auloncara only chase each other, same with the other 2. So the OB will not be the same? Was hoping it would know it was a Taiwan reef

[jcover]

I think fish are more likely to show aggression towards other fish with similar shape and/or colours. I had an OB male peacock that did not like Venustus... but he was OK with scianochromis fryeri..

[Bamzam]

How do they know without a mirror lol

[DJRansome]

Bamzam how many years have they been in the tank?

[Fogelhund]

If I have a mixed gender tank with a few different species and I wanted to add OB's, do the OB's always count as their own species or can they mix with the species they are an OB of? Meaning any OB's I add would need to be their own group with proper M:F ratio? Or for example if one of my species was pure Taiwan reef, can I add a Taiwan reef OB and it would blend into my pure group?

OB Hybrid "Taiwan Reef" are hybrids. If you add such a fish in your tank, you shouldn't raise any non OB, Taiwan Reef, and sell them as Taiwan Reef, as there is a probability that they are hybrids. I wouldn't bother keeping OB Hybrid "Taiwan Reef" with pure strain though, as it seems like a waste of fish that you shouldn't be raising...

There are plenty of pure OB fish, that won't hybridize as easily, but these are mbuna from Malawi that would be too aggressive. There are some Victorian Haps that are OB, that wouldn't hybridize with your Taiwan Reef though.

[Bamzam]

The auloncara have been there since June 2020. Taiwan reef only about 6 weeks. Anything I add won't be for probably another 6 months or so, depending on how fast these grow. I want to wait until these are more mature and sexed...just planning ahead.

As for the OB, I really just like the way they look with their patterns. I have no plans of keeping fry or selling anything in this tank. If any fry somehow survive then they can stay, but no plans to sell anything. The reason I thought to buy OB Taiwan reef hybrids was to add 1 or 2 to my current group. I think im pretty fully stocked with 25 fish in my 6' tank. So I wouldn't have room to add a full set of 1:4 of any other type of OB