All Male Show Tank- Does It Work?

[jamesmacc]

hey folks,
tank been running for about 6 months now and my malawis are starting to breed like crazy. the problem i have is with my rock work that took me ages to get the way i liked it. i cant catch any of the holding fish and dont stand a chance of catching the fry. my thoughts were remove the rock from the 385l and replace with a couple of big pieces of slate rock or ocean rock, that way i can catch the fry. then set up another tank with nice rock work etc and keep that as an all male show tank. will the males show their colours without females and will there be lots of agression? i like the tank the way it is but its going to get very crowded when the fry grow. i have tried catching the fry by using a homemade clear water bottle fry trap that i seen on youtube that you put food in and the hole is only big enough for fry to get it but this did not work.
let me know your thoughts
cheers
james

 

[Malawi MaD]

It's doable mate yeah, just depends on the species etc.. A lot of people do hap/peacock all male set-ups all the time and most of them ive seen look brilliant

 

[njstockley]

It's definitely doable.

I have an all male hap / peacock tank and it's been fun to set up. They definitely show great colour and it's a great centrepiece tank to look at. It's been a bit of trial and error though - some peacocks are fine in the mix, some are little devils that very quickly you will have to remove (normally the "man made" species) - a hospital tank (or 2) is an absolute must! I've found that even a slight resemblance between males has to be avoided though.

I started off with smaller rocks, but now have much larger "slabs" in there. Will update my thread in the African section with pics later on when I get a chance.

Until recently I had a small group of yellow labs in there, and to be honest, I really miss their social activity - that's something that an all male tank won't give you. I'm thinking of adding a small group again - and hoping my syno gets a good snack out of any fry they produce, or maybe adding a more predatory hap to help deal with the numbers.

Would you be setting up the tank for mbuna or peacocks / haps? From your journal I think you have a mix at the moment?

 

[jamesmacc]

It's definitely doable.

I have an all male hap / peacock tank and it's been fun to set up. They definitely show great colour and it's a great centrepiece tank to look at. It's been a bit of trial and error though - some peacocks are fine in the mix, some are little devils that very quickly you will have to remove (normally the "man made" species) - a hospital tank (or 2) is an absolute must! I've found that even a slight resemblance between males has to be avoided though.

I started off with smaller rocks, but now have much larger "slabs" in there. Will update my thread in the African section with pics later on when I get a chance.

Until recently I had a small group of yellow labs in there, and to be honest, I really miss their social activity - that's something that an all male tank won't give you. I'm thinking of adding a small group again - and hoping my syno gets a good snack out of any fry they produce, or maybe adding a more predatory hap to help deal with the numbers.

Would you be setting up the tank for mbuna or peacocks / haps? From your journal I think you have a mix at the moment?

i think it would be a hap tank. at the moment i have a mix of mbuna and haps and to be honest its working well, i just have a lot mbuna breeding just now and once they grow my tank will be seriously over crowded. i plan to put either a 350l corner tank or an 8 foot monster. problem being i would have to get rid of my tv stand and hand the tv above the tank, i think condensation and noise/bass from the telly might affect fish although i could set up suppound sound so the noise is not above the tank

 

[rifty]

another option i find works well is a bit of both especially with haps and aulonocara mixes i find works well keeping various haps in pairs or groups and all male aulonocara at the mo i have a pair of phenochelius a large group othopharynx tetrastigmas and various male aulonocara mamelela, ngara, jacob hongi island and another tank with a group of placidochromis mdoka whitelips, otopharynx lithobates group,and various odd males again all living happy and with great colours i find its generally breeding aulonocara that will cause the grief!