Breeding setup

[azzah]

On the weekend I'm picking up a 3 tiered rack with 3 * 4x18x18 tanks and the weekend after Im picking up a 4x2x2 tank on its own stand.

This is my plan so wanted so get ppl thoughts if this would be ok. I plan to split 2 of the 4 foot tanks with a DIY egg crate divider with a colony in each. So that would be 4 2x18x18 sections and the third 4x18 would be split into 4 sections for fry. I was thinking of running these tanks on air filters using a LP60 from AOA.

In these tanks I plan to breed electric yellows, electric blues, marble peacocks and still deciding on one other kind of cichlid

The 4x2x2 will be split in half with venutus on one side and red fin kadangos on the other. The venutus I have are only around 5 inches so far so they should be ok till a build a 3 tiered 6 foot rack which I plan to do in about 6 months.

Can any one see any issues or make suggestions on the best way I can go about this

[Josh]

A 2x18x18 isnt really big enough for a colony of Electric blues and would be borderline for Electric yellows.

I also wouldnt divid the 4x2x2 a colony of ventutus in a 2x2x2 could be asking for trouble too IMHO

Josh

[azzah]

The maximum size of my guys that I would move into the breeding setups is about 10cm at the moment. In about a month I plan to build 2 racks to hold 2 6x20x20 tanks each which will be divided into 3x20x20 (I would try and purchase 1 6x20x20 per month) and my breeders will be moved into this setup and the 4 foot tanks will become grow out tanks for fry. I will leave the venutus 4x2x2 tank and I will put the red kadango in a 3x2x2 tank that I have spare

while the rest of my colonies are still growing will they be ok in 2x18x18 or should I not divide them to start with and have the colonies mixed by not dividing the tanks until the 6x20x20s are ready

[rosco]

In my experience 6'tanks are not much fun when it comes to storing breeding colonies unless you have really big fish like fronnies, jumbo leptosma, venutus etc. I have 2 6x2x18's and 12 2x18x18's. I am in the process of permanently splitting the 6' tanks into a 2x2x18 and a 4x2x18 compartments because over the past 3 years I am become sick of catching holding females in the top tanks. If I were to do the fishroom tank selection again (which no doubt I will) I would have very few if any 6' tanks and focus more on 3x18x18's and 4x18x18's. What you have to remember is that is that if you want to grow out fry you need probably 2-3 tanks per species. One for very small fry, one for 1-2cm fry and 1 for 3-6 cm fry. At the moment I have 6 Malawi colonies Mbuna and peacocks and I have no middle sized tanks 3x18 or 4x18 to grow them up quick enough and move them on so I have heaps of fry that are in fry savers but should be in bigger tanks. So what I think that I am trying to say is that you make sure that you have a good range of tank from 18" to 4' tanks just for fry growout.

cheers

rosco

[azzah]

I managed to pick up 2 stands on the weekend one with 3 four foot tanks and the other with 2 four foot tanks With lights and sponge filters and heaters for $200. All tanks are 4x20x20 and 3 of them are divided in half by glass and the other 2 are not. I plan to remove the glass divider in one of them then use the other 2 divided tanks as fry tanks.