African Cichlid Community Tank

Also , I think you will agree, that fish in Aquarium's , pet shops, are
only there for a relative short time. It's up to you, the new owner to
provide the correct conditions. and who knows what some of these shops add
to the water, to keep the fish looking good.
bassett


"Amateur Cichlids" wrote in message
...

"Sokar" wrote in message
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All of the Tropical Fish Stores in my Metropolitan Area (300,000+
population) do not adjust the water parameters of their water for African
cichlids. Also, all of these Tropical/Marine fish stores sell their fish
from at least one tank called mixed cichlids. I suspect that Petsmart,
which has about six stores in this area, sells about 10 times more fish
than all of these smaller tropical fish stores combined.

What economic advantage is it to them (Petsmart) to keep their fish in
poor, life threatening, water conditions, as you claim they are doing.

snip

I think you may be missing my point completely. Petsmart, Wal*Mart,
etc, etc do not sell expensive tropical fish. They don't carry some of the
nicer fish one may find in Lake Tanganyika, because "They're too
aggressive" or "They're too hard to keep alive.". Much of which is bull,
but I've heard it from numerous shops in my area. These little shops and
big chains for their African cichlids selection, they carry "Mixed
Africans" which come from their supplier that way. These are cheap fish
that cost these big chains little. If they lose a couple fish in the week
they spend in the store, it's not a big loss to the store. As I mentioned
with the N. leleupi that were imported and put in soft water, they died
within a year. It's not an instant death in many cases. These are fish
that should be living many, many years.
I enjoy my tanks and I enjoy the programming on my site. If you don't
feel the need to match fish to conditions to prolong their life, that's
your perogative. If you feel your fish will live just as long as mine
will, more power to you. I can only pass on what I've learned and give the
point of view of the biologists and ichthyologists. Either way, it really
doesn't matter to me. Happy fish keeping. =)
Tim

My thoughts on the Mixed Africans can be found in this article.
http://www.fishaholics.org/articles.php?ArtId=1