mixing africans and central american cichlids
- Thread starter THeshiznit
- Start date
In general no its not a good idea. Africans prefer hard alkaline water and SA prefer soft acidic. I'm sure that each one could adjust to the other if thats what you really wanted to do. But Idealy they are not compatable.
he said CA which require generally water kinda in between the two. I voted it is okay as long as size and temperment and growth rate etc... are taken inti consideration when choosing.
I said yes because they make reasonably good dithers and it won't matter if they get eaten as your just wanting to keep the CA/SA cichlids anyway...err..i mean in my tanks thats how it is. I don't have any africans though....left anyway...*evil grin*...Herbs. LOVES them! AH HAHAHA!
With a size differential that great the dovii will probably die. Butti's are quite aggressive, and the Dovii is just too young/small.
Mixing africans and CA's can work, but it depends on what africans you're thinking of. Not only are their water chemistry requirements different, so too are their feeding requirements. There are plenty of vegetarial Malawi cichlids that can suffer from bloat if fed too much protein. Many CA's require a decent amount of protein, and it's tough to tell the little mbuna's not to eat the protein flakes/pellets.
I have mixed a few africans with CA's with great success. Just find one that isn't succeptible to bloat and isnt' too picky about water close to neutral pH. As far as aggression goes, many africans seem to be unconcerned about american cichlids, and vice versa (not always true for Butti's). I used to be able to keep peacock cichlids and/or small butti's with my midas...not now that he is full grown though. I have mixed JD's and Oscars with africans and all went well. In fact, you can see a blue african (would have to look up species name) in my avatar with my O's.
Mixing africans and CA's can work, but it depends on what africans you're thinking of. Not only are their water chemistry requirements different, so too are their feeding requirements. There are plenty of vegetarial Malawi cichlids that can suffer from bloat if fed too much protein. Many CA's require a decent amount of protein, and it's tough to tell the little mbuna's not to eat the protein flakes/pellets.
I have mixed a few africans with CA's with great success. Just find one that isn't succeptible to bloat and isnt' too picky about water close to neutral pH. As far as aggression goes, many africans seem to be unconcerned about american cichlids, and vice versa (not always true for Butti's). I used to be able to keep peacock cichlids and/or small butti's with my midas...not now that he is full grown though. I have mixed JD's and Oscars with africans and all went well. In fact, you can see a blue african (would have to look up species name) in my avatar with my O's.
