Mixing Lake Tanganyika fish with non-african communities

[Akeno071]

Absolutely no information I can find anywhere on this topic, guessing because everyone keeps them with fish of the same biome.
Curious to know if people think that Lemon Cichlids (Neolamprologus leleupi) would mix well with typical community fish like Gouramis or Angelfish.
Very interested in keeping this fish but it'd need to fit into fish I already own or would like to put into the tank with it.
I'm assuming that its mostly going to be a case of them occupying different sections of the tank more then anything past water parameters matching.

 

[duanes]

The water parameters in Lake Tanganyika are a high pH (very basic, almost 9), a high conductivity, and high mineral content.
The water parameters in places like the Amazon (angelfish) and certain Asian waters (gouramis) are often low to neutral pH (7 or below), and fairly low mineral content. For some wild angels and wild gouramis, the conductivity, and mineral content can be nearly 0, and down right acidic (pH 5).
Aquarium strains, may be less finicky, but even so, I would not keep them in the same tank.

 

[RD.]

I have seen Neolamprologus leleupi mixed with non Tangs, and while they would most likely keep to themselves in the lower reaches of the tank, they are feisty little buggers with a serious bite. I'm not sure that I would keep them with Gouramis and/or Angels. For aquarium strains, the water parameters would make no difference. I have seen many, and kept them myself, for years, all in the same tap water. pH 8.0, hard water with high mineral content

 

[The Morning]

Everyone I have had has been very aggressive towards other fish. Currently mine does well in my mixed African tank but he is only there because he was harassing his previous tankmates.

 

[Akeno071]

I have seen Neolamprologus leleupi mixed with non Tangs, and while they would most likely keep to themselves in the lower reaches of the tank, they are feisty little buggers with a serious bite. I'm not sure that I would keep them with Gouramis and/or Angels. For aquarium strains, the water parameters would make no difference. I have seen many, and kept them myself, for years, all in the same tap water. pH 8.0, hard water with high mineral content

So doable with non-tangs but if they decide they don't like their tankmates they'll do significant damage?
I had already ruled out something like Discus due to water parameters but figured fish that tolerate harder water might be able to mix well.

Is the aggression of the leleupis linked to their breeding behaviour, or is this just the basic attitude of them likely to interfere with the stocking and the breeding behaviour, if it were to happen, would intensify it?
Do you think that a small group stocked in a larger tank ( These would be in a 8x2x2 that I want to get sometime next year ) wouldn't suffer this issue as bad or would it not affect the aggression at all?

 

[The Morning]

My experience is every fish has their own “personality”. So can it work? Possibly. That being said if the gouramis and angels are your primary interest then I personally wouldn’t risk them by adding a known aggressive species. If you are willing to possibly lose a fish or two to trial and error to see what works then best of luck to you. I would suggest you have a spare tank set up if possible In case the African needs to be put in a time out.

My leleupi was aggressive all the time when in tank with more docile fish. He is fine in a mixed African tank with other aggressive to semi aggressive fish.

 

[RD.]

Domestic discus do fine in hard water, a complete non-issue, unless one is attempting to breed. The results of breeding in hard water will equate to a very low hatch rate. (due to hard water!) But I would never keep leleupi with discus, totally a not fair fight. If you look at the face/teeth of a leleupi, that should be clear enough. These fish don't play!

 

[RD.]

My experience is every fish has their own “personality”. So can it work? Possibly.

While I tend to agree about individual personalities, I think that the safest bet is always to go with the overall known level of aggression within a genus or species. This species is a predator in nature - it is at the least somewhat aggressive, more so when in breeding mode, generally much more so with conspecifics. So do with that what you will.

 

[Akeno071]

Domestic discus do fine in hard water, a complete non-issue, unless one is attempting to breed. The results of breeding in hard water will equate to a very low hatch rate. (due to hard water!) But I would never keep leleupi with discus, totally a not fair fight. If you look at the face/teeth of a leleupi, that should be clear enough. These fish don't play!

View attachment 1389090

Okay, I'm genuinely surprised that Discus and leleupi, which to me seemed the total opposite ends of the hardness spectrum, could co-exist in this way.
Seems like I might have to re-consider getting leleupi completely, I figured they'd be fine occupying the lower region of the tank with armoured catfish and leaving the higher areas of the column to the labyrinthian moonlight gouramis I was hoping to get and that this separation would be enough to curb any potential aggression. I guess its just simply not that simple.
I'm now also beginning to wonder if the scaleless fire eel that I intend to get this tank to eventually hold would take well to any leleupis deciding they don't like it.
Its a shame because I already have a 40gallon (containing a Pearl and a Gold Gourami, along with a ruby shark and an angelfish, most certainly a poor combination for the lemons ), getting this 2nd tank will be pushing my luck quite a bit as it is. So getting a 3rd tank for them is almost completely out of the question.

 

[RD.]

Maybe it's just me, but I always find swimming with the current, to be a lot easier than swimming against.