A while back, I homed 2 Nimbochromis venustus with a friend of mine. I originally took in 4, but there ended up being two confirmed males and well obviously that wouldn't have worked out so well.

It turns out, the unknown one turned out to be a female after all, and he was asking me about what would be the best way to get them to breed or if that would work out okay since there's only one female. I've never tried with the africans, and have never had any accidental breeding of them here so I couldn't even guess at what would work or not. I hardly get Africans, since a majority of them don't get that large I usually only get single extremely aggressive ones.

He tried researching breeding online and found a few sites with inconsistent information, so he started asking me about it. I don't really know myself (and he was right about the inconsistent info) so I'm running it by you guys. I have a general idea how the fish farm place does it, but that's a fairly extreme method they use and they have more females to work with too.

Do you guys have any pointers or know a good book or website to pass along? I really don't want to accidentally give out the wrong info and have him end up with a dead fish.

well to be honest theres a chance they will never breed, sometimes they just dont get click, thats why more females are normally recommended, in your friends situation i would just make sure the 2 of them have enough space (which is alot), keep ph around 8-8.2, temp around 80, and awesome water quality is essential, wait it out and observe. oh and be on the watch for more females

do you know how big they are??

Water shouldn't be an issue, this is the dude that breeds fancy guppies. His big reason in taking them was to have somewhere for his reject guppies to go. I know he feeds them some chichlid pellets too, but don't remember what brand or anything.

Both are around 5" and the last time I was over his place, the male was a fantastic blue in the front. (Prettier than mine here. Must be the guppies) I'd have to double check, but I think it's just the two of them in a 55. May be a 75, I know it's a 4 ft long tank at very least.

I wish he were more into computers I'd make him get on here.

IME, the haps need a little more attention to get them to breed than mbunas. A 75 gallon with a male and 2-3 females. Plenty of hiding places for the females as the male can be a little rough. Water quality as MMM85 stated. I kepy mine at 76°.

WYite

Cool.

Thanks guys. I relayed the info, If it does happen it will be luck. He has no interest in getting more. Everything else is nearly there. The only thing he wasn't sure about when I was talking to him was ph, but was going to test it later.

Maybe he'll get lucky. If he does, I may have to get another tank to set up a few up in. They're kinda pretty.

If they do breed there is also a good chance the males will fight over the female. They may even torment her. Another reason there should be more females is to take pressure off of the female which is breeding with the male. Males get pretty protective over the females to the point of killing them to keep other males from trying to breed with them.

Well it's only a single male and female. I have a single male here, and the male and female left. So hopefully he's not protecting her to the death with nothing else in the tank.

Oh I must of read it wrong that situation is actually better than having more males that females. You have a better chance but a lesser chance of breeding.