Black Calvus pair

1:1 is fine but there is no guarantee that the particular male and female you obtain will like each other. If buying a pair it's good to buy one that has already produced fry together (proven). If buying juveniles we often buy six and hope a pair forms...later removing the extras.

If they are both males one may try to kill the other...I had to remove male #2 from my 72" tank.

Brichardi and trets each have a rep for killing everyone else in the tank when they spawn. How big is the tank?

its a 75 gal. it has 2 brichardis, 2 dickfield julies, 2 trets and 4 juvy leleupis. how many more can i add? or is it enough already

jgc2003 said:

its a 75 gal. it has 2 brichardis, 2 dickfield julies, 2 trets and 4 juvy leleupis. how many more can i add? or is it enough already

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Once your existing stock has paired up, you have enough fish for two 75 gallons already. As it stands, if the trets paired up first... they might clear out the rest of your stock. If the brichardi spawn first, they'll definately take over 1/2 to 2/3rds of the tank.

You could maintain the Julidochromis, leleupi and a pair of calvus in a 75 with careful management, but the trets and brichardi are not good community members, once they are spawning.

I agree with all of that. I'll add that leleupi can also be somewhat volatile even in pairs.

i dont think the tret will pair up coz one keeps harassing the other and intend to remove the bully. the brichardis seem to pair up though, so id like to take out the bigger one (male?). so a solo brichardi and a tret still risk trouble in a tang community?