best way to breed

[lee]

If i wanted to breed different kinds of cichlids which way would be better, have seperate tanks or put them all in a big tanks and let them breed and take out fry.  I have a friend that has 32 fish in a 5 foot tank and they are  all breeding happily as my husband says we should buy a heap of small tanks and have them breed in there, we already have 10 tanks and would like to put them in there to breed and save money to buy fish instead of tanks. Can anyone point in the right direction.

cheers lee

[jjfish]

I think having seperate tanks is the way to go because they will breed more, there isnt as much stress for the fish, and you cant get any crossbreads.

[wrk21]

i think it all gets down to what cichlids!!
africans and american will all breed  when in with fish from their own areas.

just to give you an example a tank of americans, 2 jags, 2 red devils 6 synspillium a festae and few others thrown in and the jags breed but lost all the fry and the red devils breed and killed just about everything else in the tank.....
 i know its not that bad with africans but this is what can happen.

yes having just pairs in tanks, you can pick the male and female that you want to breed and the number of fry will be way above anything from a community tank.

also you may get a pair of fish that will eat their own young so then you need some dither fish to bring out the maternial instinks of the fish to defend their fry against other predortors

[nemo1981]

i try to keep mine separate where i can.

[lee]

Thanks everyone for your help. Will try to get some tanks so I can seperate.

cheers lee