jewels are an exception to the rule. they have very similar requirements to CA/SA cichlids. they are not rift lake africans, they are not mbuna, and they eat meat. mbuna die from a standard CA/SA diet. they have very long intestines designed to get nutrients from algae. if they are fed a high protien diet, they get severely constipated. in late stages, it can affect their swim bladder and they can't swim in any normal way. they wil twirl around and ram into the glass until they just finally stop swimming all together. if you don't actually see it happen, you come home to a perfect looking fish that is dead. when your healthy looking africans die and you can't figure out why, well, that is why.
there is no argument. i just don't want people to read these posts and to think that this combo, or any similar one, is going to work. so they spend alot of money only to see their fish die one by one. then they quit the hobby and tell other people that fish keeping is a big pain in the... butt.
all africans are not the same. the ones in this tank are best treated like vegetarians and should only be fed low protien food.
i am not saying that no african can be kept with any new worlders. this particular group of africans, mbuna, cannot be kept with carnivores. they love to eat and they will eat themselves to death.
sorry for the long post
