# my 5ft male malawi haps/peacocks tank



## nudge (Aug 1, 2011)

http://img193.imageshack.us/img193/7623/5ftk.jpg
Some pics of my 5ft malawi male hap/peacock tank. Wanted to keep the aquascape pretty simple so you look at the fish not the rocks. Some pics of my fisk.
azureus
http://img199.imageshack.us/img199/5964/62112732.jpg
haplochromis brownae
http://img508.imageshack.us/img508/9115/brownj.jpg
placidichromis electra
http://img535.imageshack.us/img535/2787/electrar.jpg
dragonsblood peacock
http://img35.imageshack.us/img35/7465/dragonpea.jpg
fryeri
http://img819.imageshack.us/img819/5727/fryeri.jpg
red fin kadango
http://img51.imageshack.us/img51/597/kadango2.jpg
al maleri red
http://img829.imageshack.us/img829/9646/malerired.jpg
protomelas steveni taiwan
http://img51.imageshack.us/img51/1040/steveni1.jpg
http://img8.imageshack.us/img8/3572/fish002v.jpg
http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/7898/new003wh.jpg

Few aggression issues, no fighting yet but a lot of chasing. Any critiques, suggestions?


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## vann59 (Jun 20, 2011)

Nice looking fish. Chasing I don't mind, as long as there's no damage. It's good to have a time out tank when needed.


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## nudge (Aug 1, 2011)

cheers, not sure who to take out first theres a few trouble makers, how long do you leave them in time out?


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## vann59 (Jun 20, 2011)

Well, if there's any damage to a fish, it needs time to heal before mixing them back together (so maybe 2 or 3 weeks). During timeout, you can feed the weaker fish more and let them put on some weight so that they can defend themselves better. I did this for a while using egg crate as a divider, and the more aggressive fish got beat up pretty badly by the second in line (after I removed the divider and remodeled with new rocks, which would not allow me to use egg crate as a divider anymore). So now I have that one in the new timeout tank until I can even things up and let the previous alpha heal up. The fish that stays in with the others and gets his own territory established again has a 'home team' advantage when the other fish is reintroduced back into the main tank.


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## chinds78 (Jun 22, 2011)

*nudge*,
If you enable BBcode in your posts those pics will show right up on this forum.


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## chinds78 (Jun 22, 2011)

Nevertheless, those are some gorgeous haps and peacocks you ahve.


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## jerry11 (Aug 25, 2011)

Nice fish. Im curious... Which are the aggressors?


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## nudge (Aug 1, 2011)

the kadango gives the taiwan reef a hard time. The electra is at war with the brownae and gives the azureus a bit of grief, the fryeri give the azureus a bit of grief to. My maleri red has just started to colour up as he is the smallest peacock and my baeneschi hybrid isn't taking to it to kindly.


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## vann59 (Jun 20, 2011)

They're just like a little underwater soap opera, aren't they?


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## jd lover (Mar 11, 2011)

in my experience its always to just remove a killer if one were to start killin as the time out idea sounds good but basically youre just turnin the little one into the new bully.

if theyre all takin turn bullyin ea other then there shouldnt be much damage but once they all gang up on one that one is likely to die


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## nudge (Aug 1, 2011)

a soap opera it certainly is. I have tryed time outs before but have found it hasn't really helped, i guess it is just one of the pitfalls of all male tanks. Even tying to pick relatively non aggressive fish, ya just never know what is gonna happen till you put them all together.


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## nudge (Aug 1, 2011)

chind78, it says that my bbcode is on, should i disable?


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## adam0444 (Apr 16, 2011)

Sweet


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## chinds78 (Jun 22, 2011)

No, leave it on. Just be sure to surround all your image links with the IMG tag. So it will look like this...


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## nudge (Aug 1, 2011)

nice one, cheers for that


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## des (Mar 30, 2011)

*nudge* Lovely tank you have there. Just an advice - the water at the surface of your tank appears calm. I think I see a spray bar on the top left side of your tank. If it is a spray bar I would recommend trying to point it in a direction that will agitate the surface to help with the oxygen exchange. You're fish will appreciate it. They look great by the way!


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## chinds78 (Jun 22, 2011)

...and by leave it on, i mean leave the BBcodes on, don't check the disable box.


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## nudge (Aug 1, 2011)

I have two canisters running with spray bars at each end. At one end i have the spray bar pointing up towards the surface of the water, it creates good agitation at one end. The spray bar at the other end is pointing down toward the bottom of the tank, it kinda creates a circular current running end to end if that makes sense.

I had both pointing toward the surface for agitation, i changed it to see if it would help keep the crud flowing toward the intakes. Fish seem ok not gasping for air. The spray bar pointing toward the surface has the jets of water breaking the surface . Would you recommend pointing both spray bars toward the surface?


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## nudge (Aug 1, 2011)

oh and cheers for all the feedback, much appreciated. Am pretty new to cichlids, tanks been up and running for just over a year and I'm still learning


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