In hindsight, buying 3 fish hasn't always worked out... building a community

[Magnum Man]

I've been doing that long enough now to see some long term results... it's worked out with a few fish, but with some that try to pair up in an ark type tank, that's reasonably crowded, the results are often unpredictable... and in the case of Cichlids, the "stress" often effects the group, or even the whole tank... on dwarf Cichlids, twice I've had 3 or 4 in a larger tank, only to end up with 2 females... seems actually getting a community to survive, in a small environment, takes a lot of planning, and a little luck, like putting together a team for the space station...
I do like my community tanks, and when everything gels, they are amazing, but that doesn't always end up well... and can be frustrating

 

[jaylach]

I've been doing that long enough now to see some long term results... it's worked out with a few fish, but with some that try to pair up in an ark type tank, that's reasonably crowded, the results are often unpredictable... and in the case of Cichlids, the "stress" often effects the group, or even the whole tank... on dwarf Cichlids, twice I've had 3 or 4 in a larger tank, only to end up with 2 females... seems actually getting a community to survive, in a small environment, takes a lot of planning, and a little luck, like putting together a team for the space station...
I do like my community tanks, and when everything gels, they are amazing, but that doesn't always end up well... and can be frustrating

The most diverse cichlid tank I've done was a 30 gallon tank with Blue and Yellow Acara, one each, along with a single Green Terror, a single Jack Dempsey and 3-4 Convicts. If I remember right there were also some corys and a pleco. They all got along fine but the trick was that they all went in the tank at the same time as small juveniles of about half an inch. There were also small golds and some guppies but only at feeding time.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

I beieve in doing fish breeding in a species tank and staring with a group of the fish. If they are like angels and they pair, then you rearrange things when this happens. However, if they are like plecos, corys and schooling fish who scatter eggs, then I would always do colony. Nature has developed reproductive methodologies which suit different species. But the goal of any of them is the same, to produce the healthiest and strongest offspring in order to best insure enough survive for the continuation of the species.

For this reason I always did my plecos in species tanks with at least 6 and as many as 15 fish. I do not believe in selecting pairs for breeding. I have no clue who has the best genes and would be the best choice to spawn together. But the fish know how to do this. So I am all for letting them choose. Different species will have specific considerations. I know with my plecos groups that both the males and females have a pecking order. The top females only get to spawn only with the top males. And the top fish in either group will do their best to prevent subordinate fish from being involved.

A lot of this we can understand just using some common sense. Females must attain a certain size and age before they can make eggs. How many eggs is mostly dependent on the size of the female. So it is in the best interest of producing the most offspring that the bigger females holding more eggs should be the ones to spawn. They will keep the younger smaller females from getting the chance to spawn. But the females need about 2 weeks after they spawn to have another clutch of eggs ready to go.

During this time the subordinate females, given the chance, if the dad on eggs tries to slip out for a quick bite to eat, she will enter the cave and eat eggs or wigglers. If she succeeds, it means the dad returns to no offspring and is then willing to spawn again. But, this is not a common occurrence. A lesser female may try to bully her way in, but dad's are pretty smart about not allowing this. I have watched a dad guard his wigglers from several such females trying to get into the cave. He would chase them off, but not so far as to allow another fm to slip in when he was doing so.

So, my philosophy is to let the fish to decide who should spawn which whom. They will always make the best decision as opposed to my best guess in chcosing a pair. I believe in letting the fish make the choices when it come to who hooks up. I believe this should be done with most species whenever possible.

The other intersting aspect to reproduction is how many eggs actually become adults. With plecos the dad starts with eggs in the cave and in about a month free swimming fish emerge. While some fry may become lunch, free swimmers can hide and grow, but eggs and wigglers cannot do anything to prevent their becoming lunch. So for plecos this increases the odds of eggs making it to aduilthood. But with egg scaterers, the trick is a large number of eggs means that while most may be lunch for other fish, the sheer numbers mean some will always hatch and survive.