[mattleec]

I have a 75 gallon African cichlid tank and recently got a smaller tank for the fry to raise them til they are old enough to sell. the fry are electric blue fryeri, bumblebee and demasoni right now. waiting for my acei and some peacocks to have some also. in the fry tank I have a loach and a Chinese algae eater and 3 angelfish. I have had angelfish in the big tank but that didn't work out well. I was told that as long as the angels were larger than the cichlids they would be fine but the cichlids tore them apart anyway. the fry are too small to be a threat and the angelfish don't bother them. most of the cichlids didn't bother them except the yellow labs and demasoni which tore them up.

I have a blue peacock about 2 inches long in the main tank that has lost all its color. its a very passive fish. I have gotten rid of all my other peacocks that lost color but I still have some that do quite well. just trial and error on individual fish personality. I was wondering if it being a very docile fish would harm the angelfish if I put it in there? ill probably sell it before too long anyway and it would eventualy grow too large for the fry tank too keep it in there for long. I would just like to see it back at full color for a while till the next time I sell some.

 

[mattleec]

the angels are small right now but they will grow too large for the fry tank with time. something I didn't think about when I got them. wondering if a betta would be ok with the African fry. the size would be better for the tank. would the betta go after the fry? I have been reading that the angels don't mix well with betta most of the time but If I remove the angels and replace them with a betta that would be interesting too. we basically just wanted something a bit bigger to see and enjoy in the tank as some fry are nice to look at early on like the bumblebee's and others take a very long time before they are anything but just plain like the electric blue fryeri.

 

[DJRansome]

I would not mix other fish with fry you are growing out. I would expect the peacock to eat the fry.

 

[mattleec]

it hasn't been interested in the fry loose in the main tank. most of my cichlids aren't. I have 2 electric blue fryeri that have been in there since they were tiny and no one bothered them. they are about 8 months old now. they have 7 younger siblings in the main tank a few months old and those are doing great. when I first put that group in it was 23. water got too hot and I lost a lot of my fry from the last few and a few other fish also. I have a few fish I have to keep an eye on that were trying to get at the fry through the floating isolation tanks I had them in but only a few fish have even shown interest in the fry swimming around loose in the tank. johani was sucking them out through the side of the isolation tanks. I had added netting around them to stop that. one of my exasperatus, the smaller of my 2 males has always been interested in the ones in the isolation tanks. the acei have done some minor chasing of fry. a few others have shown minor interest in checking them out but not trying to eat them. my bumblebee's have been picking off my Chinese algae eaters but don't care about the fry other than the male guarding his when they were in the isolation tank and chasing the johani away from it. for that reason I was more concerned that that peacock would be interested in the angels than the fry.