Mixing Africans and South Americans

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awsomepk

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Aug 2, 2010
64
0
6
Wisconsin
I have a 120 gallon tank 6x2x1 (6 ft long by 2 ft tall by 2 wt wide) and i gave 10 fish. 1 7 inch pleco, 1 electric Yellow lab, 2 acei's 1 goldfish, 1 guppy, 2 from the assorted that i have no idea what they are, 2 Kenyans and 2 severums. I was thinking about putting some south Americans in there, and i was wondering it that was a bad idea? All the fish in there now are ~2 in. here are some S.A cichlids i was thinking about getting:
Tiger Oscar x1
Albino Oscarx1
Jack Dempsey x1
Managuense x1
Convicts (to breed and use as feeders)x2
Is this a Good or Bad idea? The severums are south American and they do great, but they are less aggressive than others
 
i dont think your even gonna be able to fit 2 oscars and a jaguar cichlid in the same tank and it maybe 120 but thats small cause 1 oscar requires a 55/75 and 2 oscars would be around 120..and a jaguar cichlid would be a around 125..a jack dempsey around 100..and ive never heard of a mixed cichlid tank and im thinking its just bad news..
 
Interesting mix of fish for sure. The guppy will be food for the Oscar and Jag, and the jag will decimate your current stock in a 120. The only African that requires the same water perimeters as sa cichlids is the jewel and even though they stay small, they are very aggressive and will probably kill your severums.

If it were me, I'd trade back in the goldfish and pick one direction or the other - African or South/American. Very different water requirements. The Africans stay relatively small but most if the sa's get quite large and have attitudes to match. Just a full grown Jag, Oscar and JD in a 120 would be a constant warzone and if you were to breed convicts in that tank that size it would be WWIII.

It's not to say you can't mix the Africans and south Americans it's just that one or the other is going to suffer and full grown sa's can be a handful even in the most carefully thought out setups.
 
Lol lol ok...well convicts arent that cool, and i dont care much about the goldfish (he's an albino feeder that i thought would be cool to have)....i think that an albino oscar would be really cool...i tired to have a jewel cichlid for a while but he was a bully, and took all the food. The jack dempsey would probably be too violent and convicts aren't that cool anyways. so that leaves us with...the albino oscar and the jag. Im not too attached to the guppie ethier, but she could go in my 10 gal. so would an albino and a jag work?
 
i was given mis info when i bought it...it's 71inx18inx20in and i was told 125 not 110. Yes im sure this time, i measured it
 
Besides different water parameters, some of the fish you listed have very different diets. Many africans(mbuna) are herbivores while many SA cichlids are carnivores. Too many meaty foods can kill fish like mbuna so you have to be careful.
 
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