suggestion on community tank.

[Raul]

I started 9 months ago with my 55G, community tank and well still happy with but I want some suggestions over my current stock and how they are doing:

First of all I went last year to a LFS and got me the whole stock of juvies in one hit, just to avoid extra trips and set the tank once for all, the choices and recommendation I ask during that time (and I was not aware of the HFB) were from the LFS which I trust them but now I am not sure but well it seems doesn't matter how good the LFS are, I have a feeling they take advantage of noobies :)

But well the tank it is split by two dominant males different species and then the other group kind of seemx neutral, this is how it is set up,

4 young + 2 small fry that have survived of Kenyi for sure I have one male (yellow) and still tryign to figure one one that is blue but acts like a male, doesn't switch color because of the dominant one I guess.

3 young adults + 3 small fry that have survived of red top zebras, this is also has one dominant male and well the two females also not sure if both are females I think i have seen both mating with the male.

As I mentioned the tank is split by this two groups, one area by the red top the other area by the Kenyi. The males do not fight but they like to chase everyone :).

Now the bullied group, well I mean neutral but they do not take an specific area as home, is the Yellow Labs I have 4, one male and 3 females they have never breed.

Also I have 3 cats (1 petro, 2 multi) and 1 dwarf albino pleco.


So the tank is been like that since day 1, well of-course with the extra fry. Now I know the Kenyi are the most problematic and why I was recommended that species I don't really know I just recall I asked several time if this fish was problematic and they say no it is a good choice :| , and but still have not seen any serious issue since it is kind of split with the kenyi and red top zebras.

I like the community tank, but should i really start planning on removing the kenyi or just wait and see if it really gets to be a problem or not, I am for sure planning on removing the fry or at least see if there is a female there and remove the submissive male.

[Totenkampf]

i have seen your refugium but not the main tank, add a pic of that. you might be able to get away with adding more sight barriers if you wish to reduce the size of the territories but this will cause them to squabble over space all over again. cichlids tend to be territorial in many cases.

[rmalford]

Are you wanting them to breed?

[Raul]

here is the pic, I recently split the rocks like that after months of having everything in the center just to change the territories.

[Raul]

well they are already breeding, except for the yellow, but not really a priority I just let it be.

[Raul]

for example I changes the rocks last weekend and now I have a red top and a kenyi female holding again.

[rmalford]

The more flow, more hiding spots, and more fish will keep the aggressiveness down somewhat. With that in mind, the more busy the tank is you probably won't have too many fry. I'm running a K8 on one side and all my filter outputs on the other on my 125g plus I'm somewhat overstocked. I have many of the same species that you have in my 125g and the ones that you've listed above are very docile in my tank and very cool to look at. Have fun.

[Raul]

Well I hope probably by mid year or the end I might upgrade the tank to a ~90G, I still need to be on the 48" wide foot print, so I will hold to my fish, once I put a larger tank I am sure it will get better.

The more flow, more hiding spots, and more fish will keep the aggressiveness down somewhat. With that in mind, the more busy the tank is you probably won't have too many fry. I'm running a K8 on one side and all my filter outputs on the other on my 125g plus I'm somewhat overstocked. I have many of the same species that you have in my 125g and the ones that you've listed above are very docile in my tank and very cool to look at. Have fun.