Star Sapphire and New Regal Sunshine

[Hannibal]

Currently I have Mbuna under-stocked in my 75 and 55 gallon tanks. I am thinking about changing up the rock work in the 55 and putting all of the mbuna in there.

With the open 75 I have been thinking about getting some star sapphire and new regal sunshine from Jay up in York. From the limited research I have done on them they should be fine in the tank together as they are both pretty peaceful. He currently has 1.5"-2" fish, the star sapphire being F1.

Would you recommend getting both or just one? How many should I pick up? According to his site they are both on the CARES list so I would like to buy them with the intent of breeding them down the line.

Thanks for any and all input!!!

 

[verbal]

The star saphires are going to take some time and a bigger tank(eventually). They are beautiful fish as mature males, so it should be worth it.

It looks like there is a group of 10 F1s, so I would probably go with that for starting out.

I would try to get closer to adults with the Sunshine Peacocks. It looks like there are 7 unsexed in the 2.5 to 3" range. I would get those and one male of similar size.

18 fish will be too many when they get bigger. However you are shooting for a 1 Male/3 or 4 Female ratio. The good news is you should be able to sell your excess males for people interested in All-Male tanks.

 

[Hannibal]

Thanks Jesse!

I was figuring 6-8 for each but I can easily bump it up and get more. I knew the sapphires took a while to grow so I figured they would be fine in the 75 for a while. I would like to get a 6ft tank of sorts down the line anyway.

Looks like its time to get most of the rocks out of the 75 and put them in the 55! Here is hoping I can get it done before next weekend and he still has all of the fish I want...

 

[Tony]

To be honest, I've kept/bred both and could see the male peacock bullying the phenochilus. Phenos are one of the least assertive fish I've kept and won't breed unless they're on top of the food chain.

I'd mix them with a meeker peacock - maybe a stuartgranti or a dwarf....

 

[Hannibal]

Thanks Tony.

Maybe I will just pick them up and only have them in the tank.

 

[Tony]

Thanks Tony.

Maybe I will just pick them up and only have them in the tank.

Chris, you can totally give it a shot. Phenos are some notoriously slow growers and it'll be a while before they spawn anyway (as in 1-1.5 years from 2" long), so it wouldn't be an issue to grow them out together. Just need to have a backup plan down the road in case it becomes a problem.

 

[Hannibal]

Gotcha.

I will have to check out Jay's stock on the stuartgranti to see which ones he has in stock to grow out with the Phenos.

 

[tremper]

Man I'm in the same place you are Chris. I've got 10 pheno juvies all 1.2-2.5" in a 60 as well as 6 white labs waiting to go into a 135g as soon as it is ready..... Its going to take some time, but its going to be a cool tank...... Good luck....