Well I have decided to dedicate more tanks and time into this project than I had originally planned. I think I am going to go with three 55g tanks in hopes of getting three pair and three 20g long tanks for fry tanks and grow outs. Now here's the Question...I have the five golds the five blue genes and the three EBJD's in the 55 together now...no one fish is over 2 inches. I know I have at least 2-3 months before they start pairing up. Now, I was thinking about getting the 20g long tanks first and placing together what I would like to try and pair....I think I have an idea of who is going to be male and who is going to be female. Do you think the splitting them up into three 20g longs would be ok to determane a pair? Once they pair I will then move them to the 55g's.

Now the reason this is here in the DIY is because I plan to build two three tank stands... The first will be a three tier 55g stand and the next will be a 3 tier 20g long stand. I have them drawn up and just need to get the lumber etc. I asked about the Q above and your thoughts to see what I need to get first and build first? I will keep you posted and do up the DIY thread nicely as I go.

If your sure you will get pairs splitting them ,then i would split them now. I think you might have more success with them pairing in the 55 though.I have never breed dempseys so i dont know there behavior and such,just my 2 cents.

Ya know I'm going to agree with detroit on this. If you want to be 100% sure I'd leave them in the 55g until you see them starting to pair up.

Once my female got settled into the tank with her mate I noticed that they would swim around together and slap each other with there fins to let the other know they wanted to get it on fishy style.

If you know that you have 2-3 months before they pair up I'd start with the 3 tier 55g tank stand. There's also the possibility that there first spawn might not make it so you can tack on a few more weeks to the 2-3 months. But thats IMO.

That sounds like it makes the most sense to me too.

Well what I was mostly talking about was moving the ones I want to pair....Like 1 male gold with two female golds then 1 EBJD with the rest of the golds and the other 2 EBJD'd with the BG's. I think the 55s will go in first esp sense I already have the one.

Mostlycichlids wrote:

Well what I was mostly talking about was moving the ones I want to pair....Like 1 male gold with two female golds then 1 EBJD with the rest of the golds and the other 2 EBJD'd with the BG's. I think the 55s will go in first esp sense I already have the one.

This is more likely to lead to color pairings ya want than leavin' 'em all together. If ya leave 'em all in the 55 together, ya may be more likely to get more pairs, but yer also less likely to get a combo ya didn't want.

WYite

Ya that is my thinking wyite....I want to try and get pairs I want, with that many fish shouldnt be a problem.