Africans with CA/SA???

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
fishkill

my initial pond has 5" venustus, 5" blu ahlis joined together with a 6" malaysian goldcrossback w/ 5" severums, 6" argenteas, 5" suretensis, 4" hekelis, 5" green terrors, 5" surinamensis, 7" pikes, 4" peacock bass and lemon bass.
And tons of small fish as food. Nobody died as a result of injury except a few frayed tails. As long as food is abundant everyone's happy. But I lost 28 bala sharks in 1 week...... :cry:
now I get them separated by geography....bought a big big parc :grinno:
 
I have really never had a problem mixing them, to tell you the truth.

I do not adjust for water parameters. My cichlids thrive in my hard tap water (3 different pairs bred in 1 week in my community tank).

I had Devils, Midas, Festae, Dovii, Synspillum, Tuba and a couple of others from S.A/Central America.

With them, I had an electric blue, red empress, Ngara Flame Tail, Neolamprologus Sexfasciatus, and still have a large Oreochromis taganiycae mixed in there.

I got rid of my africans, just to make room for my catfish (they would probably eat my africans), but then some Ubees and Green texas were made available, so got rid of the catfish at a sell-able size. Got rid of them for no reason (well, except the Sexfasciatus which I moved to breed).

Just match up aggressiveness, and you will be fine. I find Africans MORE aggressive in a large tank then SA/Centrals, but really, it is all good. Centrals ususally outgrow the africans (unless you are picking up an emperor), so it all evens out. Just watch out for the Butt and the Rostratus...
 
I have africans in with me red terror and convicts and they seem to be fine....The only fish that I can't put in with them is my RED DEVIL and that is because no matter how much room you give him he still thinks it is all his......EVIL fish...he's only about two inches long right now...but all of the other fish get along really well....and there haven't been any problems as far as the water parameters effecting any of them.
 
peanut power-no offence but if it bugs that much just don't look at the thread.
Back in my youth the only Africans I would mix would be
Hap. Livingstoni
Hap. Polystigma
Hap. Compressiceps
and Buttikefori-they seem to have the behavior more so of SA/CA cichlid. I never mixed Mbuna out of fear that they would get eaten by my bigger fish.
 
The whole thing about water parameters bothers me-it's not like were getting these fish straight from the wild these are farm raised fish and as long as your fish are healthy I say go for it.
 
I've kept SA/CA's and Africans many times without any problems. In fact if you search my threads I have video of a JD, Texas and GT with my peacocks, jewel and Front. The fish thrived in it even at PH 8.2, they grew fast and ate A LOT! I just found a new home for the three yesterday to make room for 2 new fish.
 
Apparently you are not a purist so 95% of your question's answer is yes. As others have said just keep the water clean and make sure there is adequate room.

I have had oscars, jack dempsey and convict with africans. The africans would actually eat the food that filters through the oscars' gills and never come to the top.
 
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