Don't know about yours, but my female festae can be testy, but ultimately isn't that tough by herself. She's backed down to smaller, more aggressive fish.
Anyone used Mbuna Cichlids as dithers for American Cichlid Aquarium?
- Thread starter Murrayt
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Don't know about yours, but my female festae can be testy, but ultimately isn't that tough by herself. She's backed down to smaller, more aggressive fish.
Great advice guys, really appreciate the input! Are there any African Cichlid's in particular that I should look into?
I've used Africans to dither large SA and CA cichlids for many years. How to do it successfully depends on the fish being dithered and the tank setup. The biggest mistake that people make trying to mix Africans and neotropicals, in my opinion, is adding in too many Africans. You don't need many... one or two is all it takes to stimulate your neotropicals into being more active/brave in a four foot tank... two or three in a six foot tank.
This little guide isn't perfect, but it is a good place to start. You'll likely have to move fish around and give fish a try in order to dial in on something that will work long term.
-Aulonocara (and other Haps)... Females are much less aggressive than males... works well with fish like severums, geos... IMO not worth the potential headache when other dithers like large tetras or barbs would work fine
- Labidochromis (commonly available: rusty's, yellow labs)... works great with smaller-mouthed neotropicals like green terrors, festae, JD, texas, etc.
- Metriaclima (commonly available: "zebra" cichlids)... works great with larger-mouthed neotropicals like lugubris pike cichlids or oscars (so long as they are old enough to not be bite size! LOL)
- Provided you have a big enough tank, you might find Tiliapia, Venustus, or even Frontosa (don't hurt me!) make good companions for very large neotropicals... this situation is more of a "companion" situation than a "dither" situation
This little guide isn't perfect, but it is a good place to start. You'll likely have to move fish around and give fish a try in order to dial in on something that will work long term.
-Aulonocara (and other Haps)... Females are much less aggressive than males... works well with fish like severums, geos... IMO not worth the potential headache when other dithers like large tetras or barbs would work fine
- Labidochromis (commonly available: rusty's, yellow labs)... works great with smaller-mouthed neotropicals like green terrors, festae, JD, texas, etc.
- Metriaclima (commonly available: "zebra" cichlids)... works great with larger-mouthed neotropicals like lugubris pike cichlids or oscars (so long as they are old enough to not be bite size! LOL)
- Provided you have a big enough tank, you might find Tiliapia, Venustus, or even Frontosa (don't hurt me!) make good companions for very large neotropicals... this situation is more of a "companion" situation than a "dither" situation
