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152 Posts
Hi Everyone,
The new Cichlid tank is coming on really nicely and I am so pleased have chosen this fascinating variety of fish. I have steered away from aggressive mbuna and decided to keep to peacocks, smaller haps and chilled mbuna like yellow labs/rustys.
So the other day I went to my LFS to pick up the Rustys and asked for 1 male and 2 females (64G tank). The guy in there talked a good game, but unfortunately didn't know what he was looking for and as soon as I got them into the tank it became apparent that the two bigger rustys are both males (they straight away started posturing/quivering) and have since staked out territories at different ends of the tank.
I decided than rather try and get one out, I would go and buy another female (so the 1 female does not get too much hassle when she reaches sexual maturity).
Both the males seems quite happy at their opposite ends of the tank and rarely venture to see each other.
My question is, is 2 males too many for this size of tank? I don't want them competing and getting aggressive with each other when it comes to spawning (plus one of them will probably never colour up to the full potential).
Should I make the effort to try and catch one of them and return to the LFS? (the owner already said it would be not problem to have it back). It would probably involve a good hour with the sleeves rolled up and moving a lot of rocks around.
Thanks for any advice,
Ian.
The new Cichlid tank is coming on really nicely and I am so pleased have chosen this fascinating variety of fish. I have steered away from aggressive mbuna and decided to keep to peacocks, smaller haps and chilled mbuna like yellow labs/rustys.
So the other day I went to my LFS to pick up the Rustys and asked for 1 male and 2 females (64G tank). The guy in there talked a good game, but unfortunately didn't know what he was looking for and as soon as I got them into the tank it became apparent that the two bigger rustys are both males (they straight away started posturing/quivering) and have since staked out territories at different ends of the tank.
I decided than rather try and get one out, I would go and buy another female (so the 1 female does not get too much hassle when she reaches sexual maturity).
Both the males seems quite happy at their opposite ends of the tank and rarely venture to see each other.
My question is, is 2 males too many for this size of tank? I don't want them competing and getting aggressive with each other when it comes to spawning (plus one of them will probably never colour up to the full potential).
Should I make the effort to try and catch one of them and return to the LFS? (the owner already said it would be not problem to have it back). It would probably involve a good hour with the sleeves rolled up and moving a lot of rocks around.
Thanks for any advice,
Ian.