To get the best colour out of vics you need to keep a male, with a good number of females that he can strut his stuff to. You can only keep a couple of species together because of the high level of hybridization.
The other problem would be if you have two types of fish with similar colours, one type will be more dominant and wont let the other species show their true colour.
You might get away with a tank of red tail shellers, blue bar hippo point and a thickskin 44 sp as the colours and looks arent as similar IMO.

 

Yeah their colors will play the biggest part of pulling it off. Perhaps it would be best to go for more extremes in the colors, such as , golden ducks (black), sp. 44 , and Blue bars.

as far as tank size goes a larger less crowded tank could make a nicer show tank. It would give the multiple species of fish plenty of room to have their own areas of dominance.

 

Hi In a 100 G tank yu may house no more than 4 or 5 species together with a sex ration of 1 male for 4 females. Yu'll have to respect a simple rule when building yur fishes's community . Don't house in the same tank different species with the same male nuptial dress and with females being close in their marking and body form also don't house 2 species from the same genus together. Respecting this yu may keep some brillantly colored fishes without big risks of hybridization.
xris

 

Very helpful all.

Does height of the tank matter for vics? I know for haps and mbuna it really isn't all that useful relative to the dimensions of length and width.

If I wanted a 36" x 18" x 12" could I have two different groups of fish? Would making it 24" instead of 18" width make any difference? What about 18" instead of 12" for height?

I'd ideally like to have 2M:5F of each of the following two:

Xystichromis sp. 'Kyoga Flameback'
http://www.safhl.net/davesfish/images/X ... meback.jpg

Platytaeniodus sp. 'Red Tail Sheller'
http://www.safhl.net/davesfish/images/P ... l%20Shelle r.jpg

Obviously if the males won't show beautiful colors it isn't worth it since that's the goal of the tank.

 

I think the females of those 2 species will look the same. I have "kyoga flamebacks" and The females have the eyebars, and similar marking to sp. 44 females.

Although it is not easy to do, the best way to go for mixing victorians is to get species that dont have the same body shapes. Harpagachromis, pyxichromis, and neochromis, all have very distinct body shapes compared to astatotilapia, or "haplochromis" species.

 

Hi,

I have 5 of the species listed above and Xystichromis sp. 'Flameback' and Paralabidochromis sp. 'Rock Kribensis' work great together.

Even though I have not tried it yet, I think that Xystichromis sp. "Kyoga Flameback" and Haplochromis sp. "Ruby" might work together as well. The females look quite different, and so does the males. They also origin from the same habitat in the wild. Maybe someone else have experience with this combination?

I have only had bad experiences with keeping 2 males in a tank. At best the sub-dominant male is able to barely stay alive by always hiding. I would suggest either 1 male or 3-4 or more males. My best breeding groups consist of 8-10 fish with a 50/50 sex ratio.

 

patrick,

if I could have a 1:1 M:F ratio and have the males truly showing off their colors I'd love to do a species tank.

Do you think it'd be possible to keep 4M:4F in a tank that is 36" x 18" x 13" (or by 17" if added height makes a difference) and have the males really showing their colors?

I know it's on the smaller side but the profile says the males max out at 6" and most of the haps or peacocks I see with profiles saying a max of 6" almost never reach even 5" and I'm sure the females are smaller.

 

patrick,

if I could have a 1:1 M:F ratio and have the males truly showing off their colors I'd love to do a species tank.

Do you think it'd be possible to keep 4M:4F in a tank that is 36" x 18" x 13" (or by 17" if added height makes a difference) and have the males really showing their colors?

I know it's on the smaller side but the profile says the males max out at 6" and most of the haps or peacocks I see with profiles saying a max of 6" almost never reach even 5" and I'm sure the females are smaller.

I keep 9 Xystichromis sp. "Dayglow" in a species tank 36" x 18" x16", 4 males and 5 females. At times, I have 3 or even all 4 males colored up at the same time. The fish is about 3" in size right now. These guys stick to the bottom of the tank most of the time, so a few inches less on the height won't make a difference.

Here are some pictures.

 

Wow, that's excellent. From the simplistic yet sharp aquascaping on all your tanks to the incredible detail in all your photos you're clearly a pro. In other words, I'm sure you make what may be difficult look easy.

Now I just need to room to stick another tank and a seller in the MD area who sells them or nearby so shipping costs aren't prohibitive (I've never seen these fish even in the nicer stores in the MD area).

 

Hows everyones Vic's? Any new pics?