Will My Breeding Set Up Work? Any Better Ideas?

[Deonne]

Hi Everyone,

I am planing on keeping/breeding mbuna. I was thinking about what sort of tank set up I would need to do this, here is what I was thinking:

-90 gallon "show" tank with 5-6 harems of different species (1:3 or 1:4 ratio)
-30 gallon "breeding" tank, I will remove the harem of the species i feel like breeding from the 90g and place them in here so no hybrids
-10 gallon fry tank, I will place the holding female from breeding tank and here, and raise fry to about 1 inch
-20/30 gallon grow out tank, I will put the larger fry and juvis in here until I find them a home

What do you think? I'm open to criticism or better suggestions. Thanks!

 

[KevM]

That's pretty much ideal. Have you decided on species yet?

 

[Tizer]

Why don't you stock the main tank with species that won't cross breed and just catch the holding females to strip or spit?
 
ensure you have somewhere to move the fish onto before you start.

 

[KevM]

I guess that's because they want variety in the main tank. Your suggestion is a much safer bet, though. That's my plan for my new tank. I'm probably going to be stocking my 120G with Mainganos and Yellow labs, and then stripping holding females into a 20G (situated in the cabinet under the main tank). It can be really difficult to choose a species list for a community tank when you're interested in breeding.

On second thoughts, I'd consider trimming the amount of species down to 3-4 and just keeping them in bigger groups. Obviously you can never guarantee any two species won't hybridize but you can significantly reduce the odds of it happening.

 

[Tizer]

My tanks a bit of a hectic mix now, but as i've got about 200 fry to raise, im not really bothered for the next 6 months to a year! The only fish i have that shouldn't have nookie with anything else is my saulosi, but even then i'll only catch them if i see it happen with my own eyes