African Cichlid Community Tank

agent smith wrote:
there most certainly are rules! when you mix lakes, you stress the fish out.
different lakes have different water parameters, not to mention the
different lake fish also have different dietary needs. different lakes
CANNOT be mixed.


The cichlid guru at LFS where I worked taught me that most of the Malawi
"haplochromes" are fine with rock dwelling Tanganyikans. They can
live on a similar diet, but occupy a different part of the water column.
This actually makes for a very attractive tank. Malawi fish can adapt
to Tanganyika water and vice-versa, just as neons can adapt to hard
water. The only time you need to be super-careful of water chemistry is
if you're trying to keep wild fish and get F1 progeny.

Following his advice, I had a pair of S. ahli in with small rock
dwelling tanganyikans in Tanganyika chemistry. All the Tanganyikans
promptly set up breeding colonies. The S. ahli also had great color and
bred, and the male lived for 7 years (he killed his mate and I left him
solo). I never saw signs of water chemistry related stress in any fish.

Agreed that mbuna would be difficult to mix with micropredatory
Tanganyikans. The diets are very different and the mbuna would probably
succumb to Malawi bloat.

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