Who has had success keeping CA/SA with Rift Lake Cichlids?

[screaminleeman]

Yup missed the "rift lake" thing but picked up on his current stock just like I picked up on yours-

My infanite wisdom - Before you get back up on your high horse - Your Nile Tilapia "Oreochromis niloticus" - Oh wait! you Said - "Buttikoferi" too, a Tilapia fish from Bichir land (West African rivers) like the Volta and Senagal - well either or both fish come from bodies of water with an average PH value of 8 where as your 2 Dovii (which I hope are all in a 500 gal pond) come from bodies of water generally below nuetral (7 to 6) depending on it's regional amounts of decomping organic material.
How does this differ from what he's doing?

In my post to the OP, I made it clear that I keep "weird" combinations 10X (ten times) worse than his/ hers.

I do agree with you on the point (One dovi, not two) will not last long in the current setup. I already plan on removing it when it surpasses the 8" mark. Probably free to a good home to a MFK'r in the area.

At least bash me for my truely stupid actions of supporting LFS by buying fish from them improperly identified. This 6 - 7" beautiful blue monster was sold to me at ~ 1" (maybe less) as a Acara. I have bought baby Senegal Bichirs as Palmas and Endlis. My "Umbri" baby is turning out to be an incredibly beautiful Cuban cichlid. I won't even go into Gars as they are extremely difficult to ID at extreme juvinile states.

 

[HybridGS]

Can't help yourself can you, realise that everytime you quote and respond, you'll get another response.

Please can we keep this on topic.

Has anyone else had set ups like i have?

 

[Otherone]

No point arguing, just ruins my thread, get back on topic mate.

Sorry I thought that mixing African Cichlids with Americans was the topic, oh ya just Rift Lake Cichlids and any cichlid living in American lakes or waterways.

Let me say it again my friend - Cichlids are Cichlids no matter where they come from. Compatability is governed by each individual species, size, and their temperment.

 

[HybridGS]

Yeh but you spent your last few posts arguing over what the thread was called, both of you.

Im looking for people who have had experience mixing Cichlids....not Dats, Archer fish, low salinity marines with Brackish....blah blah blah.

 

[feverdream]

In a 7' tank, I keep my mated pair of Synspillum and a living Hap 44 colony. I say, living colony, because they breed semi-regularly... both the synspillum and the hap 44s.

The haps are in the tank basically to act as dither fish, but I have plenty of rockwork, and some of their fry survive to adulthood. I have not added a fish to the tank in about two years, though I do remove a few from time to time.

The Synspillum have zero chance of having their fry survive in a tank with fry-hunting haps in it, but I do remove them occasionally when I have a spare tank.

It works well... The Haps are VERY effective dithers, and the Syns don't hunt fry much.

Win/win for me.

 

[HybridGS]

Cool thats what i'm talking about

 

[Gruff Master]

Wow Gruff, I usually agree with you on most of your posts, but I question this. I am still a bit of a newbie, but I do love tilapia. I have seven (2 Polleni, 3 Nile and two Butti's). None of the three species of Tilapia are "peaceful, easy going" even for cichlids. The Butti's from my personal experience are by far the worst in both specific and cospecific aggression of the three though.

I have had to keep my two Pollenis in seperate tanks with CA/ SA's because the bigger one utterly shredded the smaller one NON-STOP in a very clear effort to KILL it. Exactly the same with the two Butti's. While both obviously were hell bent on KILLING the other within the species, neither seem to attempt to "kill" the CA/ SA cichlids or "other" tilapia species.

I was able to nurse the smaller Polleni and smaller Butti from extreme near death conditions. Don't get me wrong. The larger Polleni rules it's tank with an iron fist with the CA/SA EBJD & Convict. The Smaller Butti rules it's tank with the other Polleni and a Sax. Pike. The larger brutal Butti is third on the food chain in it's tank behind the "King" Jaguar and number two Dovi! The three Niles that are also in this tank do not bother anything. IMO Buttis are the WORST of the Tilapia to attempt to "mix".

That's why I said "IF" I ever mixed the two I would choose a Butti. One reason is because it's one of the few large African Cichlids that I like. The other reason is I have seen them mixed numerous times with large and aggressive American Cichlids (Check out the Thread Search). It depends on the cichlids that you keep them with. I wouldn't keep a Butti with Severums, Angels, or Apistos. This is just a Big IF to me. I don't even own a Butti.

 

[flowerpower]

Hey, your tank looks good and your fish look healthy!

 

[HybridGS]

My LFS has a HUGE Butti in a 8x4x2 tank with around 10 adult severums, 6 Oscars, Pair of Jags, Gibbi Plecs, Leopoldi Rays, RTC, TSN and about 20 Silver Dollars/Red Hooks

They said the Butti gets on just fine, never any aggression...infact the only aggression in the tank is from the Male Severums.

They also have a tank with a True Red Devil,Panda + normal Uaru, multiple Geophagus species, Severums, Oscars......they have some crazy mixes!

 

[SimonL]

From someone who's working on the importation side of the fish business for 10 years, I can tell you the Ph issue is virtually moot, assuming you're dealing with farmed fish. These fish are all bred in primarily the same water. I wouldn't advocate mixing wild Malawi cichlids with wild SA cichlids though.

I'd worry more about habits and temperament than Ph, mixing Mbuna with things like severums is probably a bad idea.

Size of the tank is the biggest issue, if you try to do this in a 55 gal it will likely fail. Store I used to work at has a 18', 1200 gal display with all kinds of cichlids from SA, CA and the Rift lakes. The fish have been in there for many years.

EDIT: There seems to be a bit of confusion here, the OP asked about Rift lake cichlids. Tilapia (including Butti.), Kribs, Jewels, Polleni, etc are not Rift lake fish but come from environments very similar to SA cichlids.