[mattawan_cichlid]

:x Every week my stocking ideas change haha. So heres what I'm thinking.

For a little background info, I have 4 yellow labs, hoping that only 1 is male, or 2.

If only one is male...then my ideas go along this sort of route
Electric yellow 1m:4f
Yellow Tail Acei 1m:4f
Cyrtocara Moorii 1m:3-4f
Aulonocara baenschi 1m:3f
Maybe another Hap/peacock/Victorian cichlid trio???

This would total to 5m:16-17f, so a total of 21-22 fish, which is what I was aiming for with the cyrtocara getting so large. I would be keeping them in a 4ft. 75 gallon tank, so I've heard that 1 male needed about 1 foot of tank, so with a 4 ft tank, keep only 4 males, so the other species may not be needed.

Let me know what you guys and gals think, thanks a lot.

Mike :fish: :fish:

 

[mattawan_cichlid]

If 2 or more are male, then I'm thinking of this
Electric Yellow 2m:6f or 3m:9f
Yellow Tail Acei 1m:4f
Cyrtocara Moorii 1m:3-4f
Maybe a pair of Aulonocara or just a male???

With the larger number of yellows, I don't think it would be helpful to add more species to the tank.

 

[dielikemoviestars]

YL ratios aren't that important. I'd just get however many you want and let it be.

I'd go for just the male peacock in either situation, since females are drab and there's really no point to have them unless you want to breed them...?

What's the width of the 75g?

 

[60gallon]

From what *** researched you can keep more than 4 male peacocks in a 48" wide tank. I have a 55 gallon and have 9 male peacocks...but in the next day or two Im moving them over to a 75 gallon (48x19w).

 

[mattawan_cichlid]

dielikemoviestars my tank is a standard 4ft wide tank. The reason I wanted the male/female peacocks was partially breeding, but to make sure the males would color up better. Would they color up just as easily without females in this type of set up?

 

[mattawan_cichlid]

Also just discovered, one of my yellow labs is holding this morning! So at least one female! haha

 

[DJRansome]

I like your first idea with just the four species. I'd do 4 peacock females however, for me quads are still a little too aggressive.

 

[noki]

Cyrtocara Moorii get pretty big and hefty, so take that into account. Larger groups of both Moorii and Acei are pushing it. Sex ratios are less important with Moorii and Yellow labs, and both of these are also two of the hardest to determine sex.

 

[dielikemoviestars]

I meant width front to back, not length (side to side).

Either way, sounds like you're already getting the advice I'd give.

 

[mattawan_cichlid]

Alright, so what peacock species would any of you recommend?

 

[DJRansome]

What is wrong with the baenschi?

 

[mattawan_cichlid]

Well nothing is, I just have a lot of yellow in my labs, so I was just looking for some other colors, I liked the looks of some jakes. Another issue would be that I don't have very many good lfs in my area, so it would probably depend on which fish I can get locally.

 

[mattawan_cichlid]

Would another Hap species work in place of another peacock species? Or would there be a chance of cross breeding with the cyrtocara moorii? What I was thinking was Otopharynx Lithobates (Zimbabwe). If not the peacocks I've been looking at are
German Red
Baenschi
jacobfreibergi (Otter Pt.)
Maylandi

 

[mattawan_cichlid]

Anyone?

 

[DJRansome]

The easy way is to limit to one hap species per tank. Some very experienced fishkeepers have experimented with combining certain haps to see if it can be done without crossbreeding, but I'm not sure results are in yet. It is common for haps to crossbreed.

I'd probably go with the red peacock in your place, just for the color.

 

[mattawan_cichlid]

Sounds good, I don't want any cross breeding, what peacock would you recommend? Whats a the red peacock? I was looking at Jacobfreibergi, does red refer to German red?

 

[DJRansome]

The German Red is line bred.
http://www.cichlid-forum.com/profiles/s ... hp?id=1313

 

[mattawan_cichlid]

Yes, but is this the fish that you would recommend? Or would basically any Aulonocara sp. work in this tank? It all depends on availability in my LFS.

Bonus, I have a Yellow Lab and Yellow Tail Acei that are both holding, so I won't have to worry about buying new ones of those, just keep the fry! I'm pretty excited haha.

So to sum everything up, it would be
Electric Yellow 1m 4f
Yellow Tail Acei 1m 4f
Cyrtocara Moorii 1m 3f
Peacock sp. 1m 4f
Total of 19 fish, not bad in my opinion for a 75. I will have 2 Emperor 400's going for filtration, doing 15-20% water changes probably weekly. I also will have a 20 and a 29 gallon tank for fry or as a hospital/isolation tank.

Another quick question, how many fish should I buy of the Moorii and peacock sp. as fry, 8? Trying to reach my goal of 1 male with a couple females

 

[dielikemoviestars]

I'd go more YL and Acei, and just the male peacock. Females are pretty drab... But I do like that you're going for harems of each... Just saying, you're going to have some brown fish muddying up your color palette

8 should get you 3f+. There's a link floating around here somewhere that gives you the probability of getting at least or greater than a given number of females given the number of juvies you purchase.

 

[GTZ]

The Odds of Obtaining Desired
Breeding Groups From Juveniles