Finally vented my cichlids!!

1. Sulfur head peacock M
2. electric blue hap M
3. electric yellow lab M
4. other electric yellow lab, i could not manage to catch. It is still maturing. does not have black dorsal or analfins yet. much smaller than the other
5. dragon blood cichlid (2) both M
6. Socolofi (M) this is one of the mbuna i am thinking of keeping with the yellow labs.
7. Electric blue johanni (2), i could care less if they are male or female since i am rehoming them anyways since they are a pain in the butt
8. cobalt blue zebra F
9. Sulfur head peacock (holding eggs in different tank) F
10. Eureka Red Peacock (male) not colored up at all
11. Star Sapphire F, i am extremely dissapointed that this is a female. I am thinking about buying a guaranteed male from my lfs to breed them in my 20 G
12. OB Peacock M
13. Kenyi mbuna F. VERY ready to breed as this was on of biggest (second holes out of all the fish) I have no idea how i would breed her tho. I dont have a male kenyi. Maybe cross breed with a yellow lab?
14. Red Zebra F. This was another that i was really hoping to be male. Most calm and peaceful fish in the tank.
So that makes my male to female ratio around 10:6

Should i go for an all male tank? Or become a breeder and sell them to my LFS????
Would love to hear your guys' comments.

 

First I would see if your local fish store would be interested in even getting fish from you regularly. Most only accept donations. Second, if you go the breeder route, that stocking won't work, but it sounds like you have a lot of tanks. If breeding is your next move. I would create a tank with a bunch of females and a few males of one species.

Also, you don't want to introduce cross breeds into the hobby. It hurts the gene pool and 'mixed mbuna' isn't something people really want to be introduced. Check this article out and I think you will get a better idea of what I am talking about. Just my opinion though.

Cichlid Research Home Page: Hybrids

 

First I would see if your local fish store would be interested in even getting fish from you regularly. Most only accept donations. Second, if you go the breeder route, that stocking won't work, but it sounds like you have a lot of tanks. If breeding is your next move. I would create a tank with a bunch of females and a few males of one species.

Also, you don't want to introduce cross breeds into the hobby. It hurts the gene pool and 'mixed mbuna' isn't something people really want to be introduced. Check this article out and I think you will get a better idea of what I am talking about. Just my opinion though.

Cichlid Research Home Page: Hybrids

Yea I won’t ever sell cross breeds. I have a 75, 29, and a 20 G. The 29 g will be my fry tank and the 20 G will be my breeding tank I believe

 

Ok yeah, I wasn't sure if that was your plan or not, so I wanted to just make sure haha. Did you decide?

 

Breeding in a 20? This is going to be hard, especially on the female.

The usual breeding setup I used was a harem of 1-2 males (depending on the species) and 3-6 females in a 150-200l tank and put holding females in smaller tanks if necessary, but usually I would strip the fry into a single 20, when old enough and put the female in a third tank to get back to shape before reintroducing to the breeding colony.

 

Breeding in a 20? This is going to be hard, especially on the female.

The usual breeding setup I used was a harem of 1-2 males (depending on the species) and 3-6 females in a 150-200l tank and put holding females in smaller tanks if necessary, but usually I would strip the fry into a single 20, when old enough and put the female in a third tank to get back to shape before reintroducing to the breeding colony.

I think I need to get out of the discus breeding mindset where we would plop 2 in a 10 gallon tank... maybe that wouldn’t work good with Africans . Aggression still not too terrible but it’s getting there. Especially with the female Kenyi. I am almost positive all my mbuna are female except for my yellow labs as well.

 

Yes, get out of that discus mindset, Malawis are the opposite. 2 in a 20 is ending with one alive and one dead.

 

I think I need to get out of the discus breeding mindset where we would plop 2 in a 10 gallon tank... maybe that wouldn’t work good with Africans . Aggression still not too terrible but it’s getting there. Especially with the female Kenyi. I am almost positive all my mbuna are female except for my yellow labs as well.

I have some breeder males ready for sale, what are you looking for? Check my page out, there is some pictures up and I can get you more if you're interested

 

Yes, get out of that discus mindset, Malawis are the opposite. 2 in a 20 is ending with one alive and one dead.

Question for u. Lots of tension between my star sapphire and electric blue... what should I do? Rehome one of them and keep the other? Wait it out? I am almost positive that the SS is a female but I understand they take a long time to mature.

I have some breeder males ready for sale, what are you looking for? Check my page out, there is some pictures up and I can get you more if you're interested

I can’t find any of the pics?

 

Question for u. Lots of tension between my star sapphire and electric blue... what should I do? Rehome one of them and keep the other? Wait it out? I am almost positive that the SS is a female but I understand they take a long time to mature.

Rehoming would be best. Which one is your choice.

 

Rehoming would be best. Which one is your choice.

Don’t know if you can tell from these pics... I can’t either. This is my star sapphire. Trying to figure out it’s sex

 

no chance. could you possibly insert them as thumbnails into your post so I can actually zoom in?

 

no chance. could you possibly insert them as thumbnails into your post so I can actually zoom in?

How do I do that

 

edit post -> remove the pics -> chose "add as thumbnail" under the editor window. If you're online on a mobile: Sorry, no idea.