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I am starting to plan my next tank. It will be a 46 gallon bow front. I really like african cichlid, but have a few questions.

1.) Unless I order them off the internet I would have to buy them from an "assorted african cichlid" tank. I am not interested in breeding them, so if they are not pure it does not bother me. Will just a mix of africans be okay or will not knowing what they are cause problems?

2.) Like I said before I do not want to breed them. (I do not have anything to do with the fry--the LFS will not take them) Is an all male tank okay?

3.) If a male tank is okay--how hard is it to sex them?

4.) Also, about how many can I have?

Thanks.

I wouldn't buy any Assorted Cichlids, as nobody knows what they are & you cannot be 100% sure how much they are going to grow or the aggression rate. I think that with Assorted fish, you are risking alot.


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It depends if you can recognize the cichlids available in the assorted section. If you'd like to get a colony of zebras OR electric yellows, then that'll be really easy to pick fish out of the assorted tank.

All males would usually lead to aggression in a size that small, and picking males out of an assorted tank would be difficult.

Thanks for the replies.

If I do male and female will they breed?

Since there is no where to buy un-assorted Africans around me, do you know of any good online places without outrageous shipping prices?

Hey,
I have a 55 gallon of africans. i bought the asst. kind, they are still quite small but from what ive seen once they get "bigger" they will breed like crazy. as to the question for cheap fish online there are no cheap fish online. the reason being to guarantee a live arrival the fish need to be shipped A.S.A.P so they dont sit in a dark box for too long without proper water condition because a bag isnt too comfortable for a fish. also the temps outside are very high. someone here in the cassifieds was giving away some Frontosa fry all you need to do is pay shipping.. and growing them is just as much fun and more.

If you dont want fry then dont take them out. A really good place to order cichlids is bluegrasscichlids.com. You can order smaller quantities and the shipping is bad. If you average it out its usually cheaper than a lfs.

If you just leave the fry in the main tank most of them probably won't make it. I have bought fish from the mixed tanks but I have also found there not always africans. You can get some good fish just make sure you know what kind of fish your buying.

Would the aggression from breeding not be as bad all males?

I know they would have to shipped overnight...some websites were much more costly for this.

Aggression in an All male tank depends on that tanks species and available spce in your tank you might have 3-4 fish total.

Aggression in a tank with both sex's again depends on the species and the available space you could probably have 5-6 fish if you do it this way.

The numbers really do depend on the species you get though...

What have you been looking at on-line?