Bottom dwellers other than pleco.

[Kashif314]

While I agree you dont need a food for the clean up crew necessarily, unfortunately african cichlid tanks choices are pretty slim once you start looking for anything outside of african cichlids. As mentioned, Sydontis cats can tolerate the ph but in my opinion they all look pretty generic and arent going to do much for what youre looking for. If you could get your ph lower one catfish Ive seen kept with african cichlids outside of a species only tank were marble achara catfish, but youd need a large tank for it. I dont know your tank size but it would need at least a 125g for the first year [and thats the bare minimum] and ultimately a 8x3 tank within just a few years. Unfortunately, most catfish and bottom dwellers in the aquarium trade come from jungle rivers with low ph, so you dont have a lot to choose from.

Thanks. Actually I personally don't like bottom dwellers at all. I would love to have some invertebrates. Would love to have an apple snail but I know cichlids will be very mean to him. I was thinking about some clown loaches as they are proven good tank mates with Africans but I personally like to just vave a dedicated cichlid only tank.

Mabey you could try pictus Catfish but you would need to add some hiding places.

He shouldn't add any species catfish.



That's why.

The cats will be out in the open, with no place to hide, and nothing to eat. It's a 100 gallon mixed African tank with basically a couple pieces of driftwood in it.

True

Yes, can't add a catfish. Very difficult to feed them and they can grow big. I can use a feeding tube but knowing the nature of cichlids they will snatch food from catfish and I don't havd any hiding spaces.

try smaller pellets? This should cut down on what the drop.

I tried. Actually I need like baby "bits" type of food but don't have any good quality food around me. I am really interested in nls or northfin but have to import that from US. I am feeding my fish hikari gold mini pellets. They make a lot of mess even with very little feedings.