Can we talk cichlids a little?

[CanadianFishDad]

Hello nerms, It has been a while since I posted in here, always lurking though. 

Roughly two months ago I added a male Aulonocara Rubescens and 3 Females from a local breeder to my fishroom. I managed to get a colony started but I opted to keep the babies in with the moms and dad. Two of the three females carried and spit. Fast forward, I had 4 fish survive long enough to grow. I have since moved the larger fish to the 110gallon I got set back up. I have the babies in a grow out tank to eventually add back in. 

I am here to see if there are any suggestions on how to stock this tank as I am new to Peacocks. Of course an all male show tank would be ideal but is that the only way to keep them? I breed other species and sell them in order to fund partial fishroom costs so I hoped to do this, while having a big tank full of these guys. 

Anyhow, any recommendations for stocking would be awesome. Thanks 🙂

[Fish Folk]

I do enjoy Africans! We’ve bred a few mbunas for BAP with our fish club. But the market really dried up recently. You can hardly give away any except the brightest males. If you’ve got buyers, then maybe go for it where you live. For us, we’d probably only be able to consistently sell Yellow Labs.

As for a Peacock tank, if you’ve got females, your whole tank will probably have one male tank boss who breeds with all of them. The sub-dominant males will occasionally make a run for the top spot, but this often ends in sad drama.

If you like the Aulonocaras, maybe breed them awhile if you’ve got buyers. Pull females to spit in a safe tank, or strip eggs and use an air-driven tumbler.