Many experienced Rift Lake African cichlid keepers have a realy good grasp about how to keep their cichlids, separating Malawi, Tanganyika, and sometimes Victorians from each other in different tanks, and by doing so, create sustainable communites, realizing the differences in water parameters, and territorial idiosyncrasies., such as recognizing that separating mbunas, from peacock types will go even further to maintaining a copasetic environment.
I sometimes wonder why New world cichlid keepers don’t come to the same realizations, knowing the vast distances and habitat variations in the new world.
Especially taking into account, territorially, and those similar attitudinal idiosyncrasies.
Combining a cichlids such as one of the species of Uaru, that live in tandem within large diverse cichlid communities (often a dozen or more cichlid species in the same stretch of river) and in soft, low pH (7 or below),(depending on species (pH 4 black water rivers)) parameter, with a Herichthys that is evolved to live non-diverse cichlid areas (often with only 1 or 2 species per habitat) and in high pH hard water (pH 8 or higher, some times approaching pH 10). Or …To me even combing those loner cichlids from west of the Andes (Mesoheros, Andinoacara), from slightly more alkaline, neutral pH water, with those Amazonian, (diverse community types) from low pH acidic waters, seems quite incongruous.
Then there is the stability of environmental factors in the African rift, compared to the diversity of habitat in the new world, even beyond soft/hard water parameters.
There are many riverine species that hail from quite separate habitats,
Many Heros species such as severum, seldom venture from slack water flow areas, and will tolerate moderate dissolved oxygen content, while many Geophagines live in rheophilic fast water conditions (even rapids) and need high dissolved oxygenated content waters.
Another difference I see between African rift lake species, and new world species, are fish population densities themselves
In the rift cichlid populations and variation of species of cichlids are very concentrated.
Whereas in the new world cichlid population are quite limited compared to other fish species.
All over Central and S America tetra densities often outnumber cichlids by 50 or 100 to 1.
This might be a clue to how best to keep new world cichlids in our tanks.
Not the predators such as Parachromis that would decimate anything that fits in their mouth of course, but with less predatory omnivores, and vegetarians not adept at predation. And there are plenty of them, that are tanks are size appropriate.
Non predators far outnumber predators in nature.
So rather than trying to cram a number of territorial cichlids in a less than an appropriate tank size, keeping few of one or 2 species in (for example a 6 ft tank), that inhabitant a similar geographical area, with a large shoal of non territorial tetras, may be the best possible scenario.
I sometimes wonder why New world cichlid keepers don’t come to the same realizations, knowing the vast distances and habitat variations in the new world.
Especially taking into account, territorially, and those similar attitudinal idiosyncrasies.
Combining a cichlids such as one of the species of Uaru, that live in tandem within large diverse cichlid communities (often a dozen or more cichlid species in the same stretch of river) and in soft, low pH (7 or below),(depending on species (pH 4 black water rivers)) parameter, with a Herichthys that is evolved to live non-diverse cichlid areas (often with only 1 or 2 species per habitat) and in high pH hard water (pH 8 or higher, some times approaching pH 10). Or …To me even combing those loner cichlids from west of the Andes (Mesoheros, Andinoacara), from slightly more alkaline, neutral pH water, with those Amazonian, (diverse community types) from low pH acidic waters, seems quite incongruous.
Then there is the stability of environmental factors in the African rift, compared to the diversity of habitat in the new world, even beyond soft/hard water parameters.
There are many riverine species that hail from quite separate habitats,
Many Heros species such as severum, seldom venture from slack water flow areas, and will tolerate moderate dissolved oxygen content, while many Geophagines live in rheophilic fast water conditions (even rapids) and need high dissolved oxygenated content waters.
Another difference I see between African rift lake species, and new world species, are fish population densities themselves
In the rift cichlid populations and variation of species of cichlids are very concentrated.
Whereas in the new world cichlid population are quite limited compared to other fish species.
All over Central and S America tetra densities often outnumber cichlids by 50 or 100 to 1.
Not the predators such as Parachromis that would decimate anything that fits in their mouth of course, but with less predatory omnivores, and vegetarians not adept at predation. And there are plenty of them, that are tanks are size appropriate.
Non predators far outnumber predators in nature.
So rather than trying to cram a number of territorial cichlids in a less than an appropriate tank size, keeping few of one or 2 species in (for example a 6 ft tank), that inhabitant a similar geographical area, with a large shoal of non territorial tetras, may be the best possible scenario.
