Curious About Haps with CA

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BillyBlanco

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Nov 12, 2010
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Fontana, CA
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I live in a region that has very hard water.... about 10gh or more all local fish stores use this water so all CA fish are tolerant. All Malawi cichlids thrive. People often say dont mix them due to diet... but predatory haps and Ca cichlids have a similar if not the same diet. they say that they have different methods of communication... which has been said by many to be a wives-tale. the only difference i see is they have a different method of utilizing aggression. AC's tend to have small fight constantly but not brutal ones where CA's fight less but it tends to be a massacre when they do. ive kept a tank of red devils, green terrors, jack dempsys and they thrived on the same diet and water that i use for my haps.

So my question is this... could a N. Livingstonii, N. Venustus, N. Fuscotaeniatus live with a central american cichlid? (I've heard reports of full grown fuscotaeniatus not being able to live with anything tho... not even other "Haplochromines" due to aggression) I think these haps could hold there own and get 12"+ so what is stopping this mixture? Mbuna i can see they are small and will either hound this CA to death thru stress... or the CA will easily kill or devour them(which ever comes 1st) but the Haps arent hounding hyperactive fish like mbuna and similar size and temperament to avoid being lunch or easily disposed of.

so if you agree yes... (i said if =P) which ones would make good candidates. i cant get my hands on very many species od predatory haps and having more than one male of one species means they fight to the death... and i want to make a show tank with 1 male of one species and so on. Peacocks are wimpy and small... and would like to add other fish in this tank other than a few haps. i really like Red Devils, Jaguars, Buttikofferi... but im wondering.... and suspect this would mean a fight too the death for all fish in the tank. and would probaly need a massive thank for this not to happen? whats your opinion on that. so if you saw no to those... what about Green Terror, Jack Dempsey(dont care for this one got rid of one because it was too shy and hated me), or flower horn? just looking for suggestions... i thought out of the box i know... so forgive me if im wrong... and yes ive read much about this and always seen the "no" answers... but its usually been people mixing Mbuna... not an agressive large fish that holds its own like Fusco. can CA cichlids be overstocked with limited decor to reduce aggression???? lots of questions... i hope i get lots of answers.
 
It is not the smaller weaker issue. The way CA/SA show surrender and aggression is the opposite of how African cichlids do it. This is an issue that many have brought up. Also the water prams are always an issue as well.
 
Water parameters of south american cichlids are much different from lake malawi. Water parameters of central american cichlids are much closer. a central american cichlid would do better in lake malawi water parameters than south american. they like slightly hard water.

CA's like 5-15 gh
African's like 10+

my local water is 10gh so is great for both.
 
I agree with Mike. Even if water conditions are a good middle ground (which it sounds like they are), the behavior is so different that I would think issues are bound to happen when everyone grows up.

It sounds like you want to try it, so go ahead and do it. You've thought it out and you'll know to watch out for them. Meh... give it a shot. I've seen plenty of other folks on this forum who mix new and old world stuff. I don't (because of water parameters and the lack of natural behavior), but that doesn't mean it won't work for you.
 
tank size is unknown... its just an idea and ill be buying a used tank from craigs list. 125-200+ gallon tanks are pretty cheap on there.

Mokujin22 i know what you are saying man. i have a huge local fish store that is warehouse style and can sell them fish of any size if they get out of hand. samll fish are very cheap so if they grow up and not get along i usually stand to make a profit off of them anyways unless they can kill each other overnight before i can act. in mixing jewels with africans people had mixed opinions... one jewel gets along great... the other had to be separated because it was male and stood up to my livingstonii and was beat nearly to death. sometimes its a fish by fish thing... thinking about trying it... and also thinking its a hassle that i might just avoid all together... it would be great if it worked... but if the chance is not very good that it will then i might avoid it all together. even 50/50 odds i would try.
 
also would a red devil and jaguar be far too agressive for agressive haps like malawi trout, malawi hawk, fusco, livingstonii.... if i was to do this... which CA are on a similar size and aggression level? then again thats always a hard question considering i had a jack dempsy that beat a red devil larger than him to death. sometimes what you read about fish doesnt stand tru.
 
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