Polypterus senegalus can they be kept in a malawi tank

Describe the Malawi tank and it's inhabitants

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there is a frontosa dolphins fairy plus lots of others

ok as i was wondering about dietary requirements, Frontosa and Dolphins are quite carnviourous like Polypterus Senegalus, but if you have any Mbuna in there, then it would be a definite problem.

I wouldn't do it mate to be honest, i wouldn't really want Polypterus Senegalus with fish that can be territorial such as Malawi. The Senegal can be an easy victim for bullying and harrassment, and also it could work the other way round, any smaller Malawi could be mistaken for food and once your Senegal's get bigger you may start to notice missing fins and chunks being taken out of Malawi

Guess it could work in a big tank with lots of shelter available for the Senegal's PLUS fellow tank inhabitants being able to safely eat the meaty foods that will be going in for the Senegal's.

I don't think the water being hard and alkaline as it should be for Malawi is an issue.

But overall, it's not something i would advocate

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I would agree, senegalus aren't the most outgoing of fish and can be bullied, and tend to be kept in softer water than mbuna.

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silly question but can malawis eat prawns as one person says yes but someone else say big no no

depends on what type of malawi we talking about

this is not aimed at you mate, it's just a lot of peeps just refer to "malawi" but there's important differences between different Malawi species, especially when discussing things like diet.

Mbuna - no to prawns, some peeps will still feed prawns as an odd "treat" but i dont see the point, there's numerous literature on the fact that Mbuna's simply are not designed to eat and process such foods, and neither do they require them.

I put a couple of tiny bits of prawn in my Malawi tank once just for an experiment (mostly Mbuna), they totally ignored it, it was completely alien to them, and my Mbuna are always on the look out for food, they get fed daily and each time it's like they havent seen food in a week, but they still turned their nose up at prawn

I would imagine it's okay with a fair few non-Mbuna like Venustus, Moori and Compressiceps, in fact for some mbuna it could form part of a perfectly good diet

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I have about 95% Haps in my tanks and they go absolutely crackers for prawns! I do have a few Afra in their and they dont really bother. They will occasionally take a bit. The Frontosa's love them too.

But I haven't really heard about prawns not being good for Mbuna TBH. I know bloodworm is bad and can lead to Malawi Bloat but prawn is a new one on me but then again I'm not a fan of Mbuna so probs wouldn't of heard it.

You learn something new everyday!

i should add its my own practice in not using prawns for my mbuna, i use prawns quite a bit in one of my other set-ups but still never give them to mbuna based on what i have read about the mbuna digestive system, they are not as bad as blood worm for mbuna and in fact, to be fair, you will also probably hear people saying prawns are fine for mbuna

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