American keepers

[gingerbeer]

What is the go with colony's of Americans. I have always kept african colonys and aimed for american pairs. Is this a falacy?

I have seen a lot of "Colony's" of americans for sale of late around the place.

Steve

[paulibius]

I guess it depends what species you keep and things like tank size. You wouldn't try to keep 10 big red devils in a 4 ft tank but maybe in a 10ft. Pairs are probably easier maintance in smaller tanks. Lots of Americans do pair up for long time in the wild I have heard. I am no expert on Americans though. My hecelii are starting to pair up, I know that.

[Ash]

I keep 6 synspilums in a 4x2x2 together

At times it almost seems like the breeding girl wants to switch boys!

I'm actually aiming to have two pairs sharing the tank so they can face off to each other & hopefully cement the pair bonds, not for any sort of "colony" as such though. Also the girls won't be the sole attention of the big male if he wants action & they aren't ready.

I think someone on here keeps trios of festae for this reason? (was it RDM?)

[r.d.m]

umm yep it was me ash! ive found that most big ca males want to breed all the time yet even the most liberated female has her limits, and 2 females means one is usually ready when the male is , certanly this works with my festae and rd's, the females sometimes squabble a bit but only because one is getting all the attention and a couple of target fish help cement the bond, with a lot of pairs of americans if the females arnt ready to breed they can cop a belting(or worse!) so my advice is if you get a small group of juvies and get a pair dont be in a hurry to offload the spare females, you may need them later