[bywilli]

Was wondering if it is possible to have an all male peacock /hap tank with mbuna breeding groups? The reason I ask is becuase I currently had 7 various peacock femaless that i had to remove because of the males going crazy. the unknown males have killed 3 females. Beaten up badly 2 females and have pushed the rest up in the corners. It also doesnt seem to be just one male but 3 (livingston, red empress, and fryeri). For some reason they are going crazy and I am going to remove all the females and try the all male tank.

The only problem I have is that I have roughly 15 yellow labs and 5 blue zebras. Would i need to remove the fems of these species in order to get the males to calm down? Or are they just attracted to fem peacocks/haps only. Please let me know because I really dont want anymore deaths or beat downs. My tank is an open water 125g.

 

[tropical_tails]

Labidochromis Caeruleus, the yellow labs, are often mixed with haps and peacocks and should be fine with them; the Metriaclima Callainos or blue zebra cichlid, however, is probably too aggressive for them.

 

[demillso]

I have an all male peacock tank with a group of breeding yellow labs. The peacocks have become more active since I added the labs yet seem to ignore them completely. The only small issue I've had was a particularly randy male lab that was trying to spawn with my male baenschi. :roll: The peacock let him know he wanted no part of that and there haven't been any issues since. I do think I should probably add a few more female labs because I think I am a little male heavy.

 

[Dewdrop]

I don't know much about peacocks and haps but I do have some yellow labs. I started out with 3 about a year ago and have finally come to the conclusion that they are all male. I didn't think it would matter so much with labs but trouble has started with them now and I think it's because they are all male. I wouldn't advice keeping them without females unless it's just one lab in an all male tank.

 

[hollyfish2000]

I have an all male peacock/hap tank with a trio of labs, one of which is now holding for the second time. Peacocks/haps ignore her completely and there are no issues . . .

 

[cichlidaholic]

The only problems I see are with the "blue zebra" and potentially hyper aggressive male peacocks going after the female mbuna. (Peacocks will cross with mbuna, a look through the unidentified section will give you an idea...)

The good news is that should they cross, you should be able to tell relatively easily when growing out the fry.

If you have several species of peacocks, you shouldn't have tried housing females with them for breeding purposes, anyway. That was an open invitation for cross breeding.

Kim

 

[bywilli]

Yes..I am fully aware of the crossbreeding aspect of mixing all the peacocks and the haps together. I wasn't trying to get fry from the peacocks but I do want fry from the Colbalts. The only thing that I am worried about is one of my horny male peacocks knockin one of the fems up. I see from other post that I can tell the difference right away but how often will it happen? I left the female peacocks in to promote color and to keep the males preoccupied and away from the mbuna females. Do I need to seperate the colbalts or will they be ok?

 

[cichlidaholic]

I wouldn't house the Cobalts with peacocks, but for different reasons. I think the Cobalts will have no problem claiming the females they want to breed with, but I think the aggression level once they reach spawning age will be a bit stressful for most peacocks.

Kim