Compatible w/ German Red Peacock.

[Puffernewbee]

I recently picked up a 37 gallon tank (18.5 x 24.5 x 21.5) for a good price. I would like to start a cichlid tank and have found some nice German Red Peacocks. I would like to get one but I was wondering what other kinds would be compatible with him and how many other fish could I get? Rumor has it that you cannot have multiple males of the same species or they will fight. I have also been told I should get about 6 - 10 different ones so that there are so many they do not get into fights. I find this hard to believe and feel that the tank would be terribly overstocked.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[sumthin fishy]

Im not well versed in african cichlids, but I do know you need to slightly overstock like suguested. Its not that they don't fight, its more that the fights are spread out and short lived, as opposed to one fish getting picked on constantly bu the only other one in there. Im not for sure, but I think if you wanted only the one species, you could do 2 males if there were enough females to go arround. IMO id go with other peacocks since they have the same needs adn a lot of interesting color variations. But again, I dont know a lot about africans.

 

[DeRo316]

You dont really have to overstock but it helps in certain situations. You could either go with 1m/3f and breed the fish, or get another peacock and go with 1m/3f of that one too.

Check this list for other peacocks:
Peacock Profiles

If you want a more colorful tank I suggest you just get all males and like you said, only 1 of each species/color or they will become aggressive toward eachother. Some mbuna will work as well, but in my tank I stuck with less aggressive mbuna like yellow lab, etc. In a 37 gallon I would say stay around 8-9 fish.