P. Acei with Peacocks and Haps?

[BigBeardDaHuZi]

I am planning a 170 gallon tank with peacocks and haps. The focus of the tank will probably be a lot of copadichromis and some placidochromis, with a side order of peacocks.
I am wondering if I can add a small school of Acei. From all I've read, they seem to prefer the company of their own kind. I was thinking maybe 3-5 fish. The female Acei would probably be the only females in the tank.

My biggest concern is dietary. Most of the fish in the tank will lean towards carnivore. The Acei are herbivores. In the wild, they like to feed off of the algae or aufwachs (sp?) that grow on driftwood.
My tank won't have any wood.

Should I give up on the acei or am I overthinking this? Have any of you kept them?

 

[james99]

I always kept a group or atleast a single acei in my hap and peacock tanks over the years, never had an issue. Both the yellow tail and white tail acei. Just feed them all a quality food like nls and diet wont be an issue.

 

[Milingu]

I would just look for some high quality pellets or flakes that contain algea/spirulina. They provide nearly as much protein as other dried food but contain more fiber. Most Placidochromis and Aulonocara are sandsifters. Every time they eat they swallow a certain amount of detritus. Copadichromis eats small plankton that also contains a lot of fiber (chitin etc.).
So a super high amount of protein is not needed. This species are carnivores but not true predators.
As addition for vitamins and micro nutrients I would add frozen food with less protein and more fibers like daphnia and cyclops.
This will also suit the acai. But I would still expect them to grow way bigger than in a pure mbuna tank because the most haps need more food than mbuna of similar size. And the acei will take their share for sure.

 

[A201]

I've kept both varieties of Acei with Haps & Peacocks, no problems.
I primarily fed them Omega One's small grain cichlid pellets & flakes. They grew big & colorful.

 

[neutrino]

When I kept them, I had no problem feeding acei as omniovres, the same as haps and peacocks. Applies to most cichlids, certainly any I've kept, feed a quality staple, avoid extremes, and they do pretty well.