Compatability..

Spontaneous

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Dec 22, 2010
64
0
0
SE Washington
I'm still doing research and the information is just overwhelming. So I'm not sure if these are Rift lake or not but they are SAs. I'm trying to put a plan together on my 125 and I have too many ideas running through my head. I REALLY want my centerpiece to be a red flagtail, but I also want other fish to compliment it, get allong with it, ect. So far, this is what I've come up with...
Bottom Tank:
Red Lizard Whiptail Plecostomus (L-10A) (Rineloricaria sp.)
Cherry/Ghost Shrimp
Medium Tank+:
Flame Rainbow (Callochromis pleurospilus Kigoma)
Neon Blue Cichlid (Paracyprichromis nigripinnis)
Chocolate cichlid (Hypselecara temporalis)
1 Red Flagtail (Semaprochilodus insignis)

My tank is going to have a black background and black sand/gravel. I plan on adding driftwood and some river rocks and such. I just LOVE the red and black/silver. I had seen a tank on here a few years back very similar. It had black, black, a red root stump, and a large flagtail and arowana and I think some pacu. I don't remember, it was a while ago but I can't get it out of my head lol.
But then again, I start looking at the cichlids and just love how active they can be. I want a couple that will be large but not fight with the flagtail. I was suggested the chocolate. Looks beautiful without stealing the thunder of it. Either tell me I'm crazy, or what kind of fish would look god and compliment the flagtail and yada yada... There's just SOO much that I'm a bit lost lol.
 

neutrino

Goliath Tigerfish
MFK Member
Jan 22, 2013
2,396
2,627
179
Mid-Atlantic, US
Chocolate cichlid is a fairly large South American cichlid and flagtails are SA (and good sized) also. Paracyps and callochromis are smallish cichlids from Lake Tanganyika. I would often say it's a myth that you can't keep fish from the two continents together, but in this case these aren't species I'd consider having in the same tank if that's what you're asking.

Though from the same lake, Callochromis and Paracyps aren't particularly compatible either. Callos are small, active, territorial, spend a lot of time chasing or fussing with each other (not going to make a chocolate cichlid happy), and water sensitive. Paracyps are a much quieter fish and might work with Callos in a Tanganyikan community in a large and tall enough tank with enough Callos to keep their belligerence confined to their own kind, but the two species aren't particularly compatible in temperament.
 

neutrino

Goliath Tigerfish
MFK Member
Jan 22, 2013
2,396
2,627
179
Mid-Atlantic, US
I wouldn't mix haps with a chocolate cichlid. Some will say never mix continents (chocolates are SA, haps are African Malawi), then some of them do it themselves by having gourami or rainbowfish or certain cyprinids with their new worlds. But it's not so much that as haps are likely to worry a chocolate with their more hyper, more aggressive behavior, also haps can or should be crowded a bit, chocolates not really. There are some SA fish that can actually mix fairly well with haps, green terrors, for example, but with a chocolate I'd go more for other SA species, geos, milder acara, sometimes severums work with them...

You could do a really nice Malawi tank in a 125 if you're primarily looking for color and activity. With the right species you could also do a colorful Tanganyikan tank that would be a little less hyper and typically more varied behavior than Malawis. Or there are a lot of new world options.
 

Cichlaholics Anonymous

Polypterus
MFK Member
May 23, 2006
8,159
14
92
Miami, Florida
I've mixed chocolates and other SA like severums, geo steindachneri, and large acaras with haps like d. compressiceps, d. kiwinge, and fossorochromis rostratus.

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