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#Post#: 431--------------------------------------------------
Mixing African Cichlids and New World Cichlids a travesty?!
DIR By: Seth_O
Date: September 23, 2014, 5:30 pm
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I know water parameters may differ greatly and obviously you
aren't going to put a Dovii in a mbuna tank. However, i had
received some Convict Cichlids for free, housed them with
mbunas, and they got along swimmingly! What are your thoughts on
mixing African Cichlids with New World Cichlids? When i set my
new tank up i am thinking of adding a Firemouth and Electric
Blue Acara. Do you think they, and other New World Cichlids,
could do as well as my Convicts did?
#Post#: 497--------------------------------------------------
Re: Mixing African Cichlids and New World Cichlids a travesty?!
DIR By: kgtropicals
Date: September 24, 2014, 7:35 pm
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It's always a risk and you never really know. It certainly can
work but there's no guarantee it will. I hope that makes sense.
#Post#: 786--------------------------------------------------
Re: Mixing African Cichlids and New World Cichlids a travesty?!
DIR By: phantom
Date: September 28, 2014, 2:06 pm
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For me the biggest argument against keeping them together is
they do not know how to read the other's body language. Most
mbuna conflict is solved with little physical fighting IMO. I
did keep convicts with mbuna cichlids for a while and had to
eventually separate them. Also mbuna fight for territory one on
one but convicts will team up and pair off. I would not put it
past a convict pair to shred a small colony of mbuna cichlids
over a week or two if they were breeding. I hope this helps.
#Post#: 841--------------------------------------------------
Re: Mixing African Cichlids and New World Cichlids a travesty?!
DIR By: UnderCoverBrother
Date: September 29, 2014, 9:17 am
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--- Quote from: KGTropicals John link ---
>
> It's always a risk and you never really know. It certainly can
work but there's no guarantee it will. I hope that makes sense.
--- End Quote ---
Similar to John, it is possible to mix 'some' however probably
not ideal especially if those convicts pair up and decide to
breed.
Also knowing your tank size would help as you could own a 3 fter
or a 12 fter (just an example). Monitor the behavior and have a
plan b ready in case things go sour.
edited for quote fix
#Post#: 861--------------------------------------------------
Re: Mixing African Cichlids and New World Cichlids a travesty?!
DIR By: Stu4648
Date: September 29, 2014, 12:57 pm
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It probably does depend a lot on where you stand on the whole
they are all kept in the same water at the LFS and therefore
have all adapted to the same water parameters debate. There are
plenty of people who would argue the case from both sides. I
think if you want to breed them they tend to do best in their
natural ranges which would tend to work against keeping both Old
World and New world cichlids together. Having said that though
there are articles such as that below were someone in Peru has
had great success breeding Frontosa in softer, low pH water.
HTML http://www.frontosa.com/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=4401
There are always going to be exceptions. in terms of aggression
issues as long as you have a backup plan to get the fish
separated then hopefully they should all survive the experience
in one piece. Plus you have the bonus of seeing fish that
normally would never encounter each other interact. The usual
rules still apply, as long as none of the fish in the tank are
at a size disadvantage they should in theory learn to get a long
ok after setting a few ground rules with each other. Big
aggressive fish with small passive ones would not work with fish
from different habitats no matter whether they are cichlids or
not. Different fish have different temperaments so you could
have an incredibly aggressive individual of a normally passive
species placed in a tank turn the tables on a shy individual of
a normally quite aggressive species, there are no guarantees.
Just because you see a YouTube clip of two fish getting on does
not mean they are not tearing chunks out of each other 5mins
later.
So basically it comes down to chance, cichlids are no different
from any other fish. You may get lucky, you may not but if you
are willing to risk your fish you should at least have a back up
option so you can save them if needs be. You are the one putting
them potentially in harms way and so you are the only one who
can get them out of it. If you cannot do that then do not risk
it. Personally I would not do it, I prefer to use it as an
excuse to get another tank.
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