Malawian Tank - What looks best?

[Ron]

I'm contemplating what to do myself and figured this is a poll-worthy topic for the forum. What looks better, an all-male setup or a mixed-sexes setup of malawian species (mbuna or haps or peacocks (or a mix)).

[Regalblue]

Definitely mixed

[cranialdisturbance]

I would vote for mixed as well.  You may wish to tread lightly with the peacock females though.  Some of the Hap females look pretty good like C. Moorii and Ramphochromis.

[jcunningham0295]

I would go mixed.  Ensure you get the best colors out of the males, but it is a trade off with the aggression spawning can cause.

[linuxrulesusa]

I like the idea of mixed, not least because I'm looking forward to video of you diving in the tank to scoop out fry. 

[Ron]

I like the idea of mixed, not least because I'm looking forward to video of you diving in the tank to scoop out fry. 

LOL

I was originally thinking of going mixed, but then started to have thoughts about going all-male. Hardest part of the decision is that it'll be exceptionally hard to remove any fish afterwards short of draining the tank. I had an almost all-male tank once, but it was a long, long time ago. Not sure if I'd regret the better colors and extra activity a mixed tank would have over an all-male one.

I'm hoping that the catfish and various haps can keep the fry population low. I have suspicions that I'll end up needing to remove fry from the overflow and/or sump at some point though.

[Rob S]

In a tank that big I would definitely go mixed. There's so much room that breeding behavior shouldn't disrupt the rest of the tank too much. Should actually be pretty awesome.  With that said, I would only add females that have good color. Or at least limit the amount of drab peacock type females.

[Ron]

I really didn't intend for this thread to be specific to my tank, but just larger malawian tanks in general. 

[lilscoots]

I voted all male, but I think it depends on the person.  I enjoy watching the "natural" behavior of breeding groups.  My wife could care less about that and is only interested in color and different shapes and what not.  I have both.  My display tank the in the living room is all male and visitors very much enjoy it.  When I show them the mixed groups tank, they are much less enthusiastic.  And some people are only happy with a tank if it has a pirate ship in it...

[four_by_ken]

I vote all male.

We tried to have a few females in our peacock tank, but it caused one male to rule the tank.  All other males looked horrible.

Got rid of the females, aggression is way down and all the males have color now.