# Jacobfreibergi



## BigBeardDaHuzi (Jul 23, 2020)

I am trying to put together an all male Malawi tank, and I would like to keep the fish mostly at 6-7" or under. 
The footprint for the tank now is 57" x 24" x 30".

Can you put a Jake in a tank like this? Can you keep more than one Jake in a tank?

I saw one post on this forum (from a long time back) where the person recommended almost all jakes for an all male tank. 
Would that keep their aggression levels in check or just lead to a bigger bloodbath?
I'm pretty sure I dont want an all Jake tank anyway. There are a lot of relatively peaceful fish that I would like to keep. 
But I am not sure how to fill up my numbers with properly sized fish, and not use a couple jakes. 
Also Lemon Jakes and Eurekas are pretty gorgeous

What do you think?


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

If you use jakes, make the rest of your males aggressive as well.

I prefer the less aggressive haps so I stuck to the stuartgranti peacocks to give everyone the best chance for color potential. I find them better looking than the jakes in any case.

Figure a small number of peacocks. After you get a red, a blue and a yellow it is harder to find more peacocks that are not these colors.

I did find malieri and usisya worked well together for yellow.

The turkis if you can find them work with darker blue peacocks.

I hear red shoulder works with other blue peacocks as well but I never stocked them.

For that size tank you only need 14-15 individuals. Assume you will keep haps as well to fill the remaining slots.


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## BigBeardDaHuzi (Jul 23, 2020)

Do you count the German Red/Rubin Red as jakes, since they seem to have come from Otter Points?


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## ken31cay (Oct 9, 2018)

Pretty sure those are both stuartgranti peacocks, which are usually less aggressive than jacobfreibergi.


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

According to the CF profiles:

The Geman Red Peacock is not a hybrid but has been line bred from the Chipoka race of Aulonocara sp. ''Stuartgranti Maleri".

The Ruby Red Peacock is not a hybrid but has been line bred from the Maleri Island race of Aulonocara sp. ''Stuartgranti Maleri". It was named Rubescens after Peter Rubin, who first imported this fish from Germany.


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## BigBeardDaHuzi (Jul 23, 2020)

Huh, I just found that too. Well, I would really love one of those reds. If I can find one. 
A Maleri sounds good and I have always wanted a Bi-color 500. Can a Rubin Red go with a Sunshine Maleri?
That flavescent is beautiful. And I will definitely look for the Turkis. But I haven't seen one here before.

1x Otopharynx lithobates.
1x Placidochromis Electra - Can I add two? What I have read says that they are peaceful with their own species. Or maybe that would leave one colored down.
1x Placidochromis Jalo Reef
Can I do a Placidochromis Johnstoni?
1x Copadichromis Azureus or trewavase if I can find one. Can there be more than one Copadichromis?
1x Protomelas Red Empress
1x Protomelas Tangerine Tiger - Will these two go together? I have seen tanks with both that seemed to do okay but they are apparently the same fish from different parts of the lake.
1x Protomelas Steveni Taiwan Reef

What about the Electric Blue Fryeri? The size is right, but are they too aggresseive?

A tetrastigma would be wonderful, but I don't know if I can find one.

And then a nice Malawi Eye Biter to round things off.

Just kidding.

Are there others that I am missing? Is there a Mylochromis I can use?


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

You have some fish that mature bigger than six inches in there and some timid along with some aggressive. Maybe you should pick your #1 favorite and we can stock around it?


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## BigBeardDaHuzi (Jul 23, 2020)

The lithobates and the aulonocara are my favorites. A lot of those haps are interesting to me and supposedly peaceful. I haven't got my heart set on anything yet though. 
I would prefer to avoid the aggressive wherever possible. The eye biters are beautiful, for instance, but even if size weren't a problem, I would probably pass.


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## BigBeardDaHuzi (Jul 23, 2020)

The johnstoni gets too big. Is there something with similar colors/shape in a different package?

I particularly like the looks of the livingstoni, but obviously can't have one. Is there a fish with those kind of markings that stays small? I haven't found anything yet


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

Nothing else like nimbochromis.

So you have chosen a timid theme.

1x Otopharynx lithobates or Otopharynx tetrastigma
1x Placidochromis Electra
1x Copadichromis Azureus
1x Copadichromis trewavase 
1x Protomelas marginatus
Aulonocara stuartgranti maleri Maleri Island
Aulonocara stuartgranti Rubesens or German Red
Aulonocara stuartgranti red shoulder
Aulonocara stuartgranti Turkis
Aulonocara stuartgranti Cobue
Aulonocara stuartgranti Usisya

You could throw in a yellow lab and an acei to get the right numbers.

If you can't get all of these, consider a mbuna tank. For those you can get 4 species and 1m:5f of each for a colorful tank.

The fish from your list I eliminated mostly because they were the more aggressive haps and many because they mature larger than six inches.

Remember it is rare to get EVERY male to color in an all-male tank and it takes tinkering with your mix (extra tanks and rehoming options) for about 2 years to achieve a workable balance.


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## BigBeardDaHuzi (Jul 23, 2020)

Nice!

Some of the mbunas are awful pretty, but I have never found them very interesting. 
Although a colony of saulosi would be pretty cool. 
Most of the mbunas here are only available in the "assorted african" tank for suspiciously cheap prices. Those tanks always look like they are packing the plague, too.

One thing I have always wondered: when you add yellow labs to an all male tank - you are only adding male(s) or you are adding a little harem?

Peaceful. I am choosing the peaceful tank. 
Hopefully


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

You can do a harem of labs if you can't get all the fish and need individuals to manage aggression. Same with Acei.


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## BigBeardDaHuzi (Jul 23, 2020)

That would certainly be cool. I'm not really interested in raising fry, but the courtship is a lot of fun to watch.


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## BigBeardDaHuzi (Jul 23, 2020)

Thanks a lot!


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## BigBeardDaHuzi (Jul 23, 2020)

Are the red empress/tigers too aggressive? The turquoise hap is gonna be a bit hard to find here. 
Everything else looks great. The


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

They are too big and too aggressive. You also don't want both of them in a tank.

I had a taiwan reef in my all male tank and he was too aggressive, I had to remove him. But if you can't get anything else, you might try the reef if you have a rehoming plan. Also borderline too big. The reef is better than the empress/tiger.


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## BigBeardDaHuzi (Jul 23, 2020)

Might be ordering the tank today. So it's 1-2 months off from fish, but things are coming together


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

How are you going to cycle?


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## BigBeardDaHuzi (Jul 23, 2020)

Media from another tank, a bottle of bacteria (it can't hurt, maybe it will help) and a couple shrimp from the market to provide ammonia. No rush.

I was thinking about getting a bucket of water, a sponge filter and a few bags of ceramic rings going while the tank is being built too. I don't know if this is worth doing or not. There would be more 'ready to go bacteria when the tank is installed, but bacteria blooms pretty quickly once you have the right kinds, doesn't it? The media from my planted tank will be a bit limited.


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

Bottled bacteria does not have a good track record with Members. We have a lot of posts helping people save their tanks. Skip the shrimp and use ammonia...see reference to the article below.

It takes six weeks for a a cycle on average, but yes worth doing the process in a bucket since you have about that much time. Read the article about fishless cycling with ammonia in the Cichlid-forum Library.

You don't want to add fish until there are enough "ready to go" bacteria or organisms in your filters. And when stocking an all-male tank you can save on shipping if you buy them all at once.


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