Hey spiff44, glad to hear the Pearsei are doing well! I think I spotted a glimpse of one in another post where you put up a pic.
What is the consensus on mixing SA and African cichlids?
- Thread starter spiff44
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Good points about the farm raised ones.. I checked those two I’m interested in.. the Cobalt blues look like they are imported from Africa but the yellows are farm raised. I guess I’ll just keep a look out for farm raised ones. It’ll probably be another 6 months before I’m looking to get any more fish anyway so that gives me time.
Hey there DMD.. I have to admit that these two are the tank favorite now. So its got me wanting to try some of the other cichlids too. The growth rate on these guys is insane… they’re now definitely the biggest fish in the tank and its kind of scary knowing that they’re still infants. But its cool too… I’m starting to see the attraction of big fish, these guys always seem to be slow motion compared to everything else.
They do seem to have more personality too.. at least they are very curious.
I have a bunch of fake sargasso plants, the kind that have those little green balls all over them. They keep trying to eat them after I started throwing peas in the tank, which they really like. I haven’t seen them succeed yet to detach one yet. I'm hoping that they'll learn quick that they're not peas. If not, I'll stop feeding them peas.
Hey there DMD.. I have to admit that these two are the tank favorite now. So its got me wanting to try some of the other cichlids too. The growth rate on these guys is insane… they’re now definitely the biggest fish in the tank and its kind of scary knowing that they’re still infants. But its cool too… I’m starting to see the attraction of big fish, these guys always seem to be slow motion compared to everything else.
They do seem to have more personality too.. at least they are very curious.
I have a bunch of fake sargasso plants, the kind that have those little green balls all over them. They keep trying to eat them after I started throwing peas in the tank, which they really like. I haven’t seen them succeed yet to detach one yet. I'm hoping that they'll learn quick that they're not peas. If not, I'll stop feeding them peas.
Agree with this! I think unless the fish are wild caught or you have extreme water, the varied water requirements aren't that big of a deal. When I kept Africans I kept them in my tap water, which is the same way I keep my SA/CA cichlids. I never mess with water, because I'd rather it be stable. Temperament is the big thing - most Rift lake cichlids would beat up SA fish. But that being said I also have a Yellow Lab in a grow out tank with SA/ CA cichlids and NA sunfish. So far so good.
My understanding is that they take about three years to reach sexual maturity, so you have a little ways to go yet. Pearsei are very curious fish that seem to watch what you do. I think that is what makes them interesting. My girl shares her tank with a red bay snook, a regani and heterospilus and they all do fairly well together. Ever consider just adding a couple other Central American cichlids? (NOT a snook however, they have huge mouths and would make a snack of your little fish)
Regarding temperament issues I think I have an advantage here from the space to mitigate this. The tank will always be on the under stocked side of things just because of the slow turnover that it has. The 2 pearsei's i have apparently are a lot more intolerant of each other usually. So far mine have only shown mild aggression... light chasing away from food at feeding time mostly. Otherwise they enjoy each other's company because they're almost always right together. I'm hoping I'll see something similar when I try other types of cichlids. I'm only planning on getting a couple of each color.
in my opinion most cichlid mixing in general is a poor life choice, Cichlids in general seem to be a poor life choice. I've never had a peaceful/community variant other than rams that weren't absolute pricks and that includes apistogramma and geophagus. Total jerks.
This is why I'm sticking with herbivores. The two I have now are no more ornery than the few kissing gourami that I have. they ignore everything in the tank and only mildly annoy each other. The others I'm considering should be similar.. I hope.
But I agree about the aggressive ones being bad news. having to give a fish its own tank because of that kinda sucks.
Not just water parameters they speak different languages african have more color stay smaller and are very territorial. SA are more aggressive over all and get larger some I have had will eat Africans once large enough . Eventually it ends with one or two big SA's when u mix them . It doesn't matter what Africans u get size matters . One exception is butterkoferi again large as SA
I never had any luck mixing, but to each his own. Iam not a big fan of cichlids as I use to be. More interested in some of the larger brainless barbs as I like the constant movement without territorial issues.
