africans marked as assorted african cichlids

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
Thats the problem w/assorted africans... unless you know what it is, it is hard to tell what exactly your looking at. Case in point, Yellow Lab and Calico Peacock. I would think labs would be in the mix and maybe the calico in question is an OB. Avoid the pretty little yellow fish with black and white stripes in its upper half. Another one to avoid is the brown spotted ones....
 
Around the DC area, the cichlids in these tanks are generally not hybrids, however, they tend to be a nasty little bunch. Typically, kenyis, auratus, bumblebees, EB johannis rustys. They are hardy for the beginner, but all have issues in a community imo. Kenyis get nasty and breed with everything, auratus and johannis are incredibly nasty, bumblebees get 8" long and mean and rustys, well, they're a little less aggressive, but in the same boat.

Unfortunately, no one at Petco tells you this and you end up with a bunch of nasty hyper-dominant mbuna interbreeding in your Malawi tank.

As the other posts said, do the research and pick specific fish for your tank. Do you want to do haps/peacocks, big predator haps, mbuna? Generally, start with a plan and stick with the plan to avoid compatibility issues in a Malawi tank.

Good luck and don't let these replies turn you away from Arficans. Find a good LFS and if they don't have what you're looking for, they can probably order it for you.
 
At my lfs all the africans are in the same tank. They don't have enough space for all the species to be kept apart. If you go in and know what you are looking for, you can find some really nice fish in these assorted tanks. You just need to be educated first.
 
Ya got to know ya Africans. Basically ya have Mabuna more rounded larger mouths, ya peacocks which are more pointer, and ya hap which are cross breads. But id stay away from walmart for fish.
 
thanks fpr all the help ive been doing alot reading about african i still got alot of more reading while im here at work today maybe i will stop by the lfs and make my first african purchase its gona be alot differnt having had only sa/ca cichlids for 5 years
 
I've actually found some bargins at the PetSmart, Walmart type places. They'll throw fairly decent fish in these "assorted" tanks sometimes. So education is very important!
 
Larz;3829588; said:
I've actually found some bargins at the PetSmart, Walmart type places. They'll throw fairly decent fish in these "assorted" tanks sometimes. So education is very important!
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I have also rarely find that some stores will throw in some of their old stock into these tanks to make room for new stockk so you can catch some deals sometime
 
Thebentfish;3828629; said:
Ya got to know ya Africans. Basically ya have Mabuna more rounded larger mouths, ya peacocks which are more pointer, and ya hap which are cross breads. But id stay away from walmart for fish.
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Haps are not cross breads.
 
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