african cichlids malawi

Question
ron, when first stocking a cichlid tank how do you tell the females from the males or do you just put quite a few in and see what happens? that makes me nervous.is it o.k. to have two males of same type in the tank together. please respond not quite sure what i am doing.

Answer
Hi Linda,
  For many East African species, many people put in one male for every 3 to 4 females.  That tends to help control the aggression.   If you have two males of the same species, unless it is a large tank (e.g., 75 gallons or so), it is very likely that the two males will fight until one comes out on top as "king" of the tank.   Be sure that you have lots of hiding places in the tank (rock, wood, plants, etc) to allow the loser some place to hide.

-- Ron
  rcoleman@cichlidresearch.com
  Cichlid Research Home Page <http://cichlidresearch.com>