New Breeding Setup

I will shortly be buying a 4ft tank for the purpose of trying to breed BN's. I have currently 2 males and 2 females (i may get 2 more females to have 2 trios. Can i keep 2 males in the same tank or am i safest to seperate them groups in the tank. I could use reef building egg crate which has square holes of around 10-12mm so my theory is fry and juvies can pass through fine but the males wont be able to.

Am i being over cautious?

Let me know your views.

I don't think your being over cautious.

It's always best to keep your males seperate, they will invariably fight for the same cave.
Do you plan on having a separate filter for each side or just one.

I plan on having an external filter intake one end of the tank and outlet the other. Plan is that this will ensure flow through from one side to the other. If flow isn't high enough I could either add a power head or another filter.

darren, you sound like you hit the nail on the head to me...

I have a new 4ft tank, and I am having two sponge filters at one end, whilst at the other I have a fluval 4 plus for extra filtration...

I am going to sub divide the tank at a later date with some strips of under gravel filter meshing and put that upright instead of across the bottom, that way flow of water will still get between the sides and then keep filtration good

sounds good to me. I would split the tank into two halves. there are lots of ways to do this. i like the idea of using sponge as it allows water to pass though (adding filtration) while seperating the two sides. By having the intake down one end and the output at the other you will get nice even flow of water, thats how i do my grow out 4fter. adding a sponge filter at each end like mentioned above will be awesome too

in terms of how to divide it. the large mesh may allow the males to see each other and hence fight, or at least concentrate on something other than baby making.

I will be posting some images as soon as I take delivery of the new tank.