Cichlabxr Posted February 26, 2007 Share Posted February 26, 2007 Hi all, Just wondered if anyone has tried a display tank of just Aulonocara species or mainly Aulonocara. Male of course. If you have, what size tank and how many fish and how was the behaviour? Thanks Martin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrisso81 Posted February 27, 2007 Share Posted February 27, 2007 I haven't tried this personally but I have seen some great display tanks that are all male Aulonocara. I would recommend at the bare minimum a 3X18, but I would personally go for a 4X18+. In tanks like this there will always be 1 dominant male, but a good mate of mine put it like this 'it's like when you go out for a night with your mates, you're always tryin to look better than them just in case some hotties come along' I have always wondered about a big tank, a big group (2m 10f of one select Aulonocara sp.) and then a handful of choice males of other Aul. sp. You'd think that with enough girls and enough space all the boys would be tryin to look their best. Hopefully someone who's actually keeping a male display can shed some further light on your question. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
huzzy Posted February 27, 2007 Share Posted February 27, 2007 I had a species only display tank for about 6 weeks while selling fish and changing from Malawi to Tang Display. Ayways, i had 14 Red Empress (5m 9f) in a 10x2x2.5. Basically 3 males claimed eaqual teritory and the 2 sub-dom males spent their time being chased from one teritory to the next and then back around the other way. That being said, i had more red empress fry than i knew what to do with, Every female was holding constantly, and some of the more experienced females were spitting 40+ at a time. I guess this blab was more aimed at chrisso's post, but i would guess that males would act similar without females around. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GTR73 Posted February 27, 2007 Share Posted February 27, 2007 I have 4 different peacocks between 3" & 6", in with an E.Blue, a Red Empress and 3 Mbuna, all in a 4'x18"x18". I have two Stuartgranti (Flametail & Sunshine), an Lwanda and a Kandeense. I have no females whatsoever. Initially the Sunshine was hyperdominant and basically keep the others down-trodden (except the Kandeense which is the smallest and amusingly doesn't take crap from any fish in the tank). However when the Flametail recovered from a case of "sunken stomach syndrome", he coloured up beautifully and now keeps the Sunshine in check. Subsequently the Lwanda has coloured up again and it's all somehow balanced out in the last 12mths. That said, if I was going to start a peacock tank ideally I'd get a 5ft tank miniumum and get types from each group to begin with - Stuartgranti, Jacobfreibergi, Chitande - then select strains that will colour very differently from one another (which is what I've tried to do in mine). I wouldn't get two of the same strain as one will dominate the other and you'll have one dull looking fish in your display. A 4ft tank works, but ideally a bigger tank would be better from what I've seen. Most peacocks are a fairly decent size (6") and so need plenty of space to really flourish and look great. Not only that, more space would probably cut down on aggression plus there's so many nice peacocks available you'll want to get a quite few diffent types! And as I mentioned I have no females, so there's no cross-breeding and the males would probably tear each other to pieces. Not sure if you've already seen this, but this link provides heaps of good info on peacocks: Peacock Corner Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JLL Posted February 27, 2007 Share Posted February 27, 2007 I have had a tank with six different peacock males in it. Same as any other similar tank, make sure that there are enough tankmates to share the aggression around. I found that the dominance shifted around a bit but the lower ranked fish did tend to lose their looks. However, when there were power struggles going on then you got to see them at their best. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cichlabxr Posted February 28, 2007 Author Share Posted February 28, 2007 Thanks for the link GTR73. I do intend to keep only males as I wouldn't want any crossbreeding. I will also only keep one of each type. As I found with my fuelleborni's you need to increase the numbers heavily to prevent the aggression. Due to my house renovations I am back to one tank a 112x50x50 (weird size I know). This now has my original colony of fuelleborni(1 male 4 females) plus one yellow, a Maleri Gold, 3 S.eupterus, 3 clown loaches, a big Paratilapia polleni male and 9 extra fuelleborni males. These I chose from all my fry for their colour and markings over the last eighteen months. It has no discernible territories and after a couple of days everything settled down. It is a tank full of colour mainly blue but it was seeing this which led me to thinking of the peacock display as it will be a little while before I get set up with breeding tanks again. Plus it will be a selling point with the "money controller" to finally get that 6 footer. It will definately have an A.mamalela. This was one of my first fish and was a beauty once Chris D. identified it for me So there's 2. Others under consideration, brevinidus, chilelo, kandeensis and korneliae. I have another 112x50x50 cycling ready for the auction. I only have the 2 of these odd size tanks. Hopefully aussiem will bring some of his beauties to the auction. Thanks for the replies. Regards Martin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aussiem Posted February 28, 2007 Share Posted February 28, 2007 The only time I mix is with young males I keep to select for breeding and as suggested they do tend to share control around.I will try and bring up some display males butcant promise as yet regards Aussie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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