Anybody have africans?

[Mikeman]

I'm thinking this for a 55g tank?

1 male 2 female labidochromis caeruleas "electric yellow"
1 male 2 female Aulonocara baenschi
1male 2 female hablochromis sp "Red Tail"
1 male 2 female Aulonocara stuartgranti "Ngara Flametail"

Or for a 35g tank

1 male 2 female auloncara baenschi
1 male 3 female hablomchomis sp "red tail"
1 male 2 female electric yellow
1 red tailed shark
5 tiger barbs


As you can see I'm using the over stocking method of cutting down on aggresion. What do you think?

what do you think?



------------------
Mikeman

"When I was lost as a baby 2 clownfish found me and raised me in an anenome, I still can't keep them"

[killian]

that sounds good. i tried the 55gl thing and it worked great .just make sure they have lots of places to swim and hide. plus make sure you feed them a good bit to cut down on the aggression.they are fun to watch

[golfish]

Man! its been awhile since I kept freshwater. I kept african chilids for a few years and found its best to have total kaos in that tank rather than 3 or 4 fish.....

Correct me if I'm wrong but a red tail shark (catfish) is from South America and gets very big.....like catfish big!!

Mark

[hinescom]

[COLOR=darkblue]I'm back!
I ditched my saltwater tank since Im heading back to College. Cant afford to have both. ;; SoOOO I went back to Cichlids, my second love in the fish kingdom. Besides, there harder to kill
I would probably suggest against the Red Tail shark, but the Tiger Barbs are probably tuff enough.
Take a look, if you can, at the Peacocks, Accis', and the Electric Blues, theyre pretty cool. Firemouths are pretty neat also.
And also, I would go with the 55gal, lots of room to roam, and everyone can have there own domain.

[Hudini]

I will tell you that they are very territorial. Peacocks (aka Aulonocara)
more than one male to 4 females in a tank will kill each other much less the females when they decide to breed.
Now any other fish in that same aquarium that looks anything like the male Peacock will be a target (Hablochromis) look like Aulonocara and vice versa.
IMO I would get one Aulonocara Male 3 or 4 females for a 50gal tank with a pair of something else that does not look like any other fish in the tank.

Personally I like Calvus along side of Peacocks and maybe a African cats


Calvus

Jacob (Peacock)



African catfish

[organicreefer]

i keep africans i would add at least 3 females to each male and go with synondontis cats.most of the species you want are more of the open water africans(except the labs) so you dont need to fill the tank full of rocks (you still need a good amount of hiding places)try to build a small pile with a cave for each male to claim as his own if you build one large "reef" the male lab just might claim the whole thing.go with a deep sand bed .yes it works .i added a 3 inch sand bed to my african tank and nitrates have dropped dramatically.plants are good for filtration too(there are some that africans wont bother too much).

[mr294]

hey if you want to keep more than one species of peacock together then stay away from females. even with the correct male around a more dominant male from another species may court the female and end up producing crossbred offspring. taxonomy of african cichlids is chaotic enough as it is without crossbred species being introduced into the equation. ive kept several males of differing species together in the absence of females for quite sometime with little trouble, but if you want to keep the females stick to one species. best of luck.

[organicreefer]

it doesnt matter if they cross breed imo as long as you are responsible about it ,dont sell babys to lfs or even give them away.just let the females spit the babys in the main tank i have at least 2 babys that are somehow surviving in my tank and i have females holding all the time .as long as you dont strip the females and raise the young in a seperate tank VERY few will make it jmo

[mr294]

i totally agree that if youre responsible about it its not a big deal but unfortunately not everyone takes that approach so i generally just recommend to avoid the situation entirely. i didnt mean to come off like a jerk or anything, but im sick of seeing fish in dealers tanks that are obviously mixed breeds being sold under erroneous names filled with adjectives like "super brilliant golden spotted one eyed haplochromis" im just starting out at saltwater, but im a cichlid fanatic.

[organicreefer]

"super brilliant golden spotted one eyed haplochromis"