compatibility...

[Krystle]

Right now i have a 140 gallon tank that is very lightly stocked with 5 electric yellows, 4 red zebras, 5 blue dolphins, some juvenile electric blues, 1 demasoni (he killed the rest), 1 female OB lab, and a single not yet coloured up aulonocara kandeense (male).

With this mix and the light stocking, the fish are spawning regularly but they never seem fully colored up. Any time I try to add new fish to the mix they inevitably get killed, even if I rearrange the decor. I really feel like the current stocking is not living up to this tank's potential.

I would like to try keeping my 5 blue dolphins and juvy electric blues, getting rid of the mbuna, and stocking the rest of the tank with male haps and peacocks. I've seen all male hap and peacock tanks and they are stunning. My only question is if the presence of the female blue dolphins will cause aggression problems? My blue dolphins have been the peaceful ones in the tank for the 4 or 5 years I've kept them, but i just want to make sure.

thanks for any advice.

[jvision]

IMO, you should be OK. Dolphins are a different enough shape and temperment that they shouldn't have an effect on your haps/peacocks.

To be fair, I've never kept a peacock/hap tank, so I only speaking from theory and what I know about fish in general.

[GREGMAN]

Right now i have a 140 gallon tank that is very lightly stocked with 5 electric yellows, 4 red zebras, 5 blue dolphins, some juvenile electric blues, 1 demasoni (he killed the rest), 1 female OB lab, and a single not yet coloured up aulonocara kandeense (male).

With this mix and the light stocking, the fish are spawning regularly but they never seem fully colored up. Any time I try to add new fish to the mix they inevitably get killed, even if I rearrange the decor. I really feel like the current stocking is not living up to this tank's potential.

I would like to try keeping my 5 blue dolphins and juvy electric blues, getting rid of the mbuna, and stocking the rest of the tank with male haps and peacocks. I've seen all male hap and peacock tanks and they are stunning. My only question is if the presence of the female blue dolphins will cause aggression problems? My blue dolphins have been the peaceful ones in the tank for the 4 or 5 years I've kept them, but i just want to make sure.

thanks for any advice.

Demasoni in with Peacocks is in my humble opinion asking for trouble. Adding any females into a male tank is trouble as your Dolfins will want to defend territory. I have several all male tanks that are all Malawi Peacocks and Haps. The tanks are peaceful. However, do not put 2 males of the same species in with each other they will fight for dominance.

Having said that. You can put a divider in the tank and have some females in there. It will cause the males to go full color.

I have 1 tank (40 gallon ) that I put my 2 line bred Blood reds Rubensens in. I put up a divider. Because these fish are so pretty I wanted them colored up. They can see each other. I added 1 smaller female and she is small enough to swim through the divider. This has worked out great as I have full colors and 2 males the same in 1 tank. You could do the same and put your mbuna if you decide to keep them. If you want to know about a cheap and effective divider let me know!

I thing k keeping the Yellows and dolfins would be the way to go. Should you decide to go all peacocks. Let me know I can give you some free just get you rolling.

Or call me we can talk about a better arrangement for your tank. Keep in mind, I am not the great guru. But I do have several Peacock tanks and it took some work to make peace, have color and be able to still let some breed.

All the very best. Greg

[Lana Bollers]

I had in my 120gal tank before it went belly up.

Electric Yellows

Dolphins

Deep Water Haps

Frontosa's

Lemon Jakes

This was a nice mixture of fish they all got along very well.

I had demonsoni's in my tank before and they were just to agressive, I also found that the Salousi would cross breed with my electric yellows... The above cross is what worked for me the best.

[RD.]

All male tanks are a roll of the dice, totally dependent on the individual personality of every fish, and how they react with each other. My male C. moorii have been some of the nastiest & most aggressive fish in my tanks, including in a 6ft 125 gallon all male tank. The current moorii male I own is somewhat tamer, but only due to a much larger F. rostratus.

In my experience, removing the females tends to keep the boys much calmer, although as previously mentiuoned that too can be a roll of the dice, and can change from week to week, month to month, or even year to year. IME the key is getting a well balanced tank boss, that is tough enough to keep the entire tank in line, but not overly aggressive to the point of always harassing other fish. In some cases you need to add and/or subtract as the fish mature. The success of these set ups is based on years, not months.

HTH

[Doc_Polit]

All male tanks are a roll of the dice, totally dependent on the individual personality of every fish, and how they react with each other. My male C. moorii have been some of the nastiest & most aggressive fish in my tanks, including in a 6ft 125 gallon all male tank. The current moorii male I own is somewhat tamer, but only due to a much larger F. rostratus.

In my experience, removing the females tends to keep the boys much calmer, although as previously mentiuoned that too can be a roll of the dice, and can change from week to week, month to month, or even year to year. IME the key is getting a well balanced tank boss, that is tough enough to keep the entire tank in line, but not overly aggressive to the point of always harassing other fish. In some cases you need to add and/or subtract as the fish mature. The success of these set ups is based on years, not months.

HTH

Well said, RD!

I found, too, when I had my all-male tank that the addition or loss of even a single fish would change the dynamic in the tank and often start a "turf war".

All-male tanks really are a juggling act (sometimes with one hand, blindfolded, standing on one foot, etc) -roll-

[Krystle]

Wow, lots of replies! I will try my best to respond to everyone who took the time to reply to my thread

Jason, thanks for the input - this goes along with what I was thinking as well.

Gregman, thanks, that is a lot of information! Don't worry I have no intention of keeping the demasoni in the tank if I decide to remove the rest of the mbuna and go all hap and peacock. That is a great suggestion about the divider... I am really attached to my breeding group of dolphins, they were actually the fry of another breeding group of dolphins I had that I ended up losing in a move. They are finally at the point where they are spawning for me and I really don't want to get rid of the females. But if I used your divider suggestion I could section off a small part of the tank for the females, and then have the male dolphins in the rest of the tank with the rest of the male haps and peacocks. When I wanted to spawn them I could put the male in with the girls for a bit then take him out again. Please do share your cheap, effective divider idea! And thanks very much for the offer of some peacocks to get me started, you don't see generosity like that everyday. I have some black slate that I could offer you as a trade, it looks great in cichlid tanks.

Lana Bollers - that does sound like a very nice mix of fish. I'm so sorry to hear your tank went belly up.

RD and Doc Polit, it sounds like this might be a bit of a challenge to get balanced just right. Thank you for your advice. RD that is so crazy that your dolphins were really aggressive! Not that I doubt you, mine have always just been the meek ones in the tank. Probably because I kept them with a breeding group of red zebras and they are not full grown yet.

[Krystle]

Another possibility for this tank that I really like the thought of, is having three or four breeding groups of compatible fish in it. I love having fish spawning on a regular basis in my tanks, it's one of the biggest joys of fishkeeping to me. I fully realize that mixing my breeding group of dolphins with a breeding group of red zebras and other mbuna was not the best mix for the fish. But what about Having the breeding group of dolphins and a breeding group of another hap, like red empresses or copadichromis borleyi? I used to have a group of yellow fin borleyi and I LOVED them. If I went THIS route, how many different breeding groups could I happily house in a 140 gallon? Does anyone have some suggestions for groups to try? Could I keep my electric yellows in the tank? Thanks again for any and all input~!

[punman]

I had yellow labs and Blue dolphins - two breeding groups in a 90. That worked out just fine. I tried to add 1M 2F electric blue - the male was too boisterous so I took the electric blues out.