?'s on my new cichlid tank..........

johnnynoxville

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May 20, 2003
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Mianus, Michigan
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hello all!
i will be setting up a new 55gal within the next week in which i plan to keep various "peacocks"....anyway, just wondering what you guys would recommend to get my ph up to "their" liking?
my tap water is only around 7.0-7.2.
also, is color the only way to sex peacocks?
my LFS has young peacocks that arent showing color yet and naturally id like to get males.....is there anything to look for in young peacocks to give me better odds at males?
thanks all!
 
pH will need to be higher like 7.5 -8.0
 
crushed coral, or pH up if u wanna buy tons of it
 
Hi,

I have added some marine pH buffer to my tank before and it worked fine. Fortunately my water is hard and the pH is pretty high out of the tap. I also use a gravel/shell substrate which helps a bit as well. Limestone rock will also help to keep the pH up. I agree with the addition of the crushed coral that will assist in keeping the pH higher. As far as the Peacocks I bought all juveniles and so far it looks like they may all be male as I'm starting to see colors come out, but I'm still not totally sure I may have a female in there, in which case she will go back as I want to have all males as well. Egg spots on the anal fin can be a sign of a male but not always, so IMO it's not a very reliable way to tell. I guess if you buy juveniles you pretty much roll the dice and see what happens. I wanted to get juveniles so I could watch them grow and get their color, plus they were less than half the price of adult males. :) I like the Maleri, Regals, and OB Peacocks a lot, there are many to choose from for sure. Good luck.
 
This article can help you raising your water-parameters.
http://www.malawicichlidhomepage.com/aquainfo/salts.html

As for telling the different between male and female Peacocks juv… I can only say; wait till they're changing colour. It is hard(if not impossible) to tell when they're still young. And even with adult ones; most of the time only the dominant male will show his true colours, a subdominant male will at times look like a female too. So if you are stocking your tank with just males, this is what you’re probably faced with. A “rainbow like tank”(that’s how we call them) can look beautiful, but lacks the natural behaviour of the fish in it. But then again, that's totally up to you.

Jimmy
 
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