Featherfins

[AzFish]

Hey everyone!!

Tried a search on this and came up empty, which i was pretty suprised by:

Would like to know, personal opions on minimum tank size for Featherfins...

not converted yet, sorry, still love Tropheus more, but i am slowly considering featherfins.....

[Colfish]

Would like to know, personal opions on minimum tank size for Featherfins...

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the bigger the better!, these guys will build a huge nest and defend it vigorously against conspecifics, so the more room they've got, the better chance of survival for everyone else in tank. mine do well in their 6ftrs.

you can't crowd these fish up like tropheus, the males need room to move and the f/males need to be able to distance themselves if nessasary

others may do it different, but thats how it works for me.

HTH, cheers;

[ViS]

Are you talking foai / furcifer or ventralis?

For the bigger featherfins, I'd go a 6x2 for 2 males and up to 8 females. You could go a 4x2x2 or standard 5 / 6 footer for a single male and 3 or 4 girls.

The nest will be about 2ft in diameter and you can't have 2 nests touching, so that gives you an idea of each males space requirements.

For the smaller Ophtalmotilapia, you could keep 2 males and a harem of females in a 5 or 6 footer (4 footer might be a bit small) , and possibly 3 males in a 6x2x2.

I used to keep 1 male and 3 female foai in adjacent 4x2 tanks (8 fish total). It worked really well, as the males could see each other, but had their own tanks. They stayed coloured up most of the time.

[Ant]

I agree with Andy on the foai. Mine are in a 6 x 20 x 20 and I am beggining to see that they will likely need a bigger tank later on. 6 x 2 x 2 would be more ideal for 2 males.

[trofius]

my foai are in a 6x2x2, when it looks like they are going to spawn i remove the extra 2 boys , leaving 2 big males and 1 smaller male, and the 2 fems. if i dont remove the extras boys they are too interested in defending then spawning.

6x2x2 minimum for 2 boys.