New to cichlids, tankmate help?

Cowgrl4life

Cowgrl4life

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My husband and I have decided to make our 60-70 gal octagon we are setting up a cichlid tank. We are leaning toward peacock cichlids, but not sure what species of catfish and cleaner fish would be appropriate with them. Also not sure (never having owned them) what an appropriate number of fish would be. Any ideas/suggestions are greatly appreciated as I'm not finding much through my research!
 
There are 2 ways to go with peacocks one breeding group or males of different species. If you go the breeding group route, you can start with 6 to 8 young fish. You will probably want to get rid of extra males, since they are harem breeders. For an all male tank, you will need to purchase fish that are showing color already, so they will be more expensive.

A common catfish to keep with rift lake cichlids are the Synodontis sp. Common options are Synodontis petricola, Synodontis "dwarf petricola" and Synodontis multipunctatus. These all do best in groups. The catfish need to be feed also, rather than just relying on scraps.
 
So, if we were to do the male tank, by different species do you mean different *colors* of the peacocks, or different species like... and electric yellow (not necessarily the one i'd choose, just the one who came to mind first)? And if we went the breeding tank route, We'd only be able to have 1 male, and the females aren't as colorful, right?

What about a Pleco, would it fare ok with the cichlids? We have a lot of algae growth in our tanks due to too much sun, but no other place in the house to put them.
I have a special love for African Featherfins, which I believe is a synodontis... that may be the route I got there.
 
The electric yellow lab isnt a Peacock its Mbuna but goes excellent with Peacocks. There are many different species of Auloncara (Peacocks) all with the same body style with different color variations, Heres a link to a list of the different types of Auloncara. Its missing some but its fairly good http://www.cichlid-forum.com/profiles/category.php?cat=3

I have had breeding groups and all male setups over the years but I prefer the all male setup. Ive found atleast in my experiances its best not to keep males that look similar because they will want to fight constantly. As for the cleaner I have always kept a common Pleco and used to have a Chinese algae eater, The Chinese did great with the Cichlids but did a terrible job cleaning
 
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Thanks so much everyone! Really excellent information! I think I'm almost ready to go shopping! I just have to decide for sure whether I want to do a breeding group or an all male group. Both have pro's and cons for me. I think the males are much prettier and will be nicer to look at, but I'll have to spend more to get them old enough to know they are males, whereas the breeding group could be potentially really fun to raise all the babies, but might not be as pretty as an all male setup, and would be cheaper for the fish up front... Hmmm... Decisions!:nilly:
 
The pics of the tank in your other thread aren't of an octogon (8 sided) tank. What are the actual dimensions? It really looks like the wrong shape for African cichlids like peacocks.
 
Thats because the Octagon is a different tank than the one I have goldfish in. . . I'm just starting this tank up. My Octagon is almost 5' tall when its on the stand. If I want to reach the bottom of the tank, i would have to stand on a stool, and drain close to half of the water and I'm not short! Octagon.jpg

Octagon.jpg
 
I wouldn't stock it like a regular sized 50-60 gallon rectangle tank...octagons are fairly deep and you lose some swimming space.
 
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