I’m not a purist and always keep mixed cichlid from different lakes and continents as long as their water requrements are similar; for instance, I won’t mix blackwater species with alkaline water fish, but I have no problem keeping rift lake cichlid with CA and some SA that came from alkaline water. I don’t do biotope scape either, but rockscape to provide caves and recently plant scape that bring together plants from different continents. I used to avoid non cichlid in the belief that they will be bullied or become cichlid food. I was wrong when I introduced large tetra, barbs and livebearers to my planted scapes and surprised they get along well. What works for me is that I don’t keep super aggressive cichlid such as Mbuna or red terror, and discovered that even predatory cichlids such as Frontosa have lost their predatory instinct being fed their whole life with pellet food.
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What a beautiful set up!
I feel that both sides of the argument are valid, There is nothing wrong with keeping biotope specific or geographically accurate species. In fact it can make for a beautiful display piece, and for some people that is what this hobby is about, recreating nature. an Aquarium with exhibits within their very home.
Whereas for others its using the bounty of available species that we are fortunate to have today.
I feel that Madagascar rainbows (Bedotia Geayi) and Celebes rainbows are very close in appearance to cyprichromis. The fact that they are Silversides and not even really rainbowfish (albeit somewhat closely related) helps this fact.
Despite coming from alkaline hillstreams or acidic tropical backwaters of southeast Asia, most Botiid loaches seem perfectly at home with African cichlids.
Their ocular spines make sure nobody gets to close to them, and their aggressive feeding tendencies help keep them thriving.
I kept red tail Botia with Mbuna years ago and I found them to be more interesting to watch than the Mbuna.
Lets examine Marine aquaria briefly, It is incredibly rare to see people keeping biotope specific regional species in lets say a reef tank.
Now don't get me wrong, I know that many of these set ups do exist and there are many dedicated hardcore aquarists in the marine hobby that do like to keep this type of setup.
However the majority of marine aquaria that you will encounter will be species that coexist peacefully that provide color and activity in the right levels of the tank. I feel that of all the niches in fishkeeping the African cichlid community is more inclined to biotope accurate set up and so called 'Purism'
The NA cichlid guys will never scold you for keeping a cichlid from Columbia with a cichlid from Mexico, in general this tends to be more like marine set ups and it is more about the species temperament and water conditions.
To each his own I guess, I'm curious to see what people have made work