Beggining Hobbyist
- Thread starter Derick
- Start date
yeah, I think we are saying the same thing. Males have less on the gill plates, females more.....sort of lol. Most females have lots of spots and males have fewer IME
Hello and welcome to MFK.
Couple things I noticed... water conditions for african and american cichlids don't matter much unless your catching the in lake malawi, lol. Most of these fish are kept at LFS's in the exact same water conditions... my african and americans are kept in the same water too. The biggest issue I would say with mixing the two is the africans will tear your other fishes fins up pretty good... why would anyone want that?? I keep both, just in seperate tanks. Feeding is another issue... africans, Mbuna in perticular, need to eat veggies as pretty much 95% of their diet. Americans benefit from a good source of veggies, however eating a lot of protein is also very good. I feed my africans veggies with a treat of blood worms once every other couple weeks. If they were in the same tank as my american cichlids they would be eating a ton of proteins, which could lead to malawi bloat. Again, the water has nothing to do with why they are in seperate tanks. The puffer, from what I know, should be kept in brackish water only?? Welcome again and good luck.
Couple things I noticed... water conditions for african and american cichlids don't matter much unless your catching the in lake malawi, lol. Most of these fish are kept at LFS's in the exact same water conditions... my african and americans are kept in the same water too. The biggest issue I would say with mixing the two is the africans will tear your other fishes fins up pretty good... why would anyone want that?? I keep both, just in seperate tanks. Feeding is another issue... africans, Mbuna in perticular, need to eat veggies as pretty much 95% of their diet. Americans benefit from a good source of veggies, however eating a lot of protein is also very good. I feed my africans veggies with a treat of blood worms once every other couple weeks. If they were in the same tank as my american cichlids they would be eating a ton of proteins, which could lead to malawi bloat. Again, the water has nothing to do with why they are in seperate tanks. The puffer, from what I know, should be kept in brackish water only?? Welcome again and good luck.
One other thing I forgot to mention... that RD of yours might be too much as it grows (12-15"). They will grow way faster and larger then the others. I know your getting a bigger tank so it might still work, but if you end up doing something different like a couple of smaller tanks instaed of the 300g... keep an eye on the RD... a 14" RD and a 4" Socolofi... might be a bad mix going forward is all. Again, good luck.
Feeding africans too much blood worms is not good for them brine shrimp is better, but not great either... the thing with africans is they will readily eat most anything you put in the tank. Just because you think they are eating good and flying around the tank does not mean it is good for the fish. African really should ONLY be eating veggies and maybe once or twice a month give them a treat of brine shrimp. Cichlid Excell is a good pellet with veggie flakes too. Again, over the past six months it might have worked, but it will catch up with the fish if you keep feeding them blood worms on a regular basis.
