bichirs w/ african cichlids

[devder1]

i love mbuna, but i also love polys. right now i have
1x 14" ornate
1x 9" ornate
2x 7" senegals
1x 12" ropefish

I am planning on getting more upper jaws, and i was just wondering what ur opinion on keeping them with some small african cichlids is? i know they are mean, but idk if they wud pick at my bichirs?
thx for any input

 

[Gobrian44]

I have a yellow lab with my sen..there both babies...there was a little aggression at first till the sen stole the labs food...now there fine together lol

 

[PeacockBassMan]

I have a poly with my malawi community. At first it was a struggle for the best area to call home...now that its settled everyone gets along just fine.

 

[devder1]

I have a yellow lab with my sen..there both babies...there was a little aggression at first till the sen stole the labs food...now there fine together lol

ok, another thing i worry about is diet differences, with makawis being herbivorous and bichirs predators.
also i am talking like 20 or 30 fyi
also it is a 125 gal. tank

 

[devder1]

I have a poly with my malawi community. At first it was a struggle for the best area to call home...now that its settled everyone gets along just fine.

what size tank and what total stock?
sorry not to be to questioning, just looking for answers

 

[BichirAddict]

i have seen problems with polys and african cichlids in that the cichlids typically nipped the fins of the polys

 

[Gobrian44]

yeah, it may eat the fry if you don't keep it well fed but add some plants (Fake or Real) for the fry to hid in. My lab eats the floating pellets and my sen the sinking shrimp so that works... hope this helps

 

[Cholly]

Cichlids are unpredictable. I have actually seen a jack dempsey that lived for years with guppies. But I've also seen dempseys that wouldn't even tolerate a pleco. There are combos that are more and less likely to work, but you never know for sure until you try. It's best to have a backup plan.

 

[Sarah88]

i just added two sens 2 days ago to my 120 (5ft) tank with some africans (only like 6 as im switching to south americans they are just what is left from my old stock) but yeah other than the africans trying to take the sinking pellets from them when they drop them ther has really been no aggression whatsoever and the sens actually chase the africans now when they try to get their pellets LOL (of course they are new and so this is by no means an example of something working long term, but so far this is what my experience has been hopefully it stays this way)

 

[big_tank_boy]

the main problem ur gona have is the ornates eating the cichlids....... i tryed adding a few large yellow labs and my ornate ate about five 5" fish in about a week hes was about 16" when he did this......... he never ate feeders before that but now i give them a couple times a month....i wouldnt try it but it could work.....