Are there any peaceful african lake cichlids that will com

Iron Buddha

Gambusia
MFK Member
Dec 21, 2008
143
2
18
St. Louis
I am setting up an african river tank..55 gallons..it is almost done...water and fake plants(the clothe soft silk type)...with river pebble bed (small gravel size..smooth), plenty of mopani drift wood for shelter are all in. In it i am putting in an black african knife fish....elephant nose or maybe a baby whale, and an african congo leaf fish and an african butterfly....and maybe a senegal.. but these fish will mostly hide during the day...as there is plenty of dirftwood caves and plant cover..

What i want to ask you guys..is..are there any peaceful cichilds that would com with these fish...any colorful ones?...and what about spiny eels..i heard there are african spiny eels...but i can't find any...how aggressive are they?...what is their max size..

i know i am asking alot...but i would really like to keep this tank freshwater african..and i love the african black knife.
 

JamesRiggs

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Apr 15, 2008
405
0
0
Huntsville,AL
What you need to look for are fish that are not aggressive to other species. I have found that Eretmodus are very aggressive to their own kind but leave everything else alone, that might be something you want to look into. For the most part rift lake cichlids are going to be highly aggressive and nip at the fins of your other fish.
 

Tibbz

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Sep 29, 2008
16
0
0
Houston, TX.
Iron Buddha;2584960; said:
I am setting up an african river tank..55 gallons..it is almost done...water and fake plants(the clothe soft silk type)...with river pebble bed (small gravel size..smooth), plenty of mopani drift wood for shelter are all in. In it i am putting in an black african knife fish....elephant nose or maybe a baby whale, and an african congo leaf fish and an african butterfly....and maybe a senegal.. but these fish will mostly hide during the day...as there is plenty of dirftwood caves and plant cover..

What i want to ask you guys..is..are there any peaceful cichilds that would com with these fish...any colorful ones?...and what about spiny eels..i heard there are african spiny eels...but i can't find any...how aggressive are they?...what is their max size..

i know i am asking alot...but i would really like to keep this tank freshwater african..and i love the african black knife.
From my expirence Africans prefer limestone instead of drift woods. what you may want to consider is getting some smaller Central/South Americans. Most Geophagus would be great as long as you water is abouve 6.5 ph (pref 7). Got a few of these guys in my tank and i love em, switched from African Cichlid to South/Cent American Cichlid after Ike took out my tank =(
 

TheFanatic

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jan 11, 2008
731
0
0
St. Louis
www.grillinfool.com
Other than the water params mentioned above if you still wanna go with african cichlids, I would suggest maybe yellow labs. But I would keep an eye on them the first few days to see how they interact with the other fish...

But I'm thinking that if you are worried the fish will be hiding most of the time and that may not be the case. IMO the more stuff you have for them to hide in/under/behind the safer they feel to come out in the open as they know that they can always dart back into a hide away in no time...

Got any pics of this tank? Sounds great...
 
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