Tropical Fish Aquariums & Equip Marine Fish & Marine Inverts Malawi Tanganyikan Cichlids
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| Posted | mixing malawi and tang cichlids |
| 22-09-2006 17:08 by sonia |
what ones for 4x2x2? will be externally filtered obviously... heard all the arguements about not mixing fish so dont need to hear it on here thanks very much (no offence) and pleeeeeeze dont be offended just ignore this thread if gets you frustrated or unhappy (you dont HAVE to post you know, some self-restraint....) BUT for people who can advise on a suitable mix please do and i WILL be hitting the internet hard and trying to join a specific malawi forum as well |
| 22-09-2006 17:11 by sonia |
i know this doesnt make it completely RIGHT but lots of shops mix these cichlids and i have also seen lots of pics of tanks with a mix in. The purists might not like it.... but hey, you cant please all the people all the time, please let me know about individual fish that could go together in your experience and knoweldge, pleeeeease do not sabotage my thread with your moral views, thanks |
| 22-09-2006 17:14 by yanton |
I have 2 6ft aquariums full with a wide mix of malawi and tanganyikan cichlids - all doing well and babies everywhere. |
| 22-09-2006 17:15 by sonia |
thank you Yanton i knew there must be people who mix these fish. what types do you keep please |
| 22-09-2006 19:18 by darren653 |
i think mixing fish is fine providing no cross-breeding takes place. If it does the hybreds should be humanly destroyed. I mix them |
| 22-09-2006 19:42 by sonia |
i agree Darren about the cross breeding that would not be aim and i hope it doesnt happen what fish do you mix darren thanks |
| 22-09-2006 20:12 by yanton |
Sonia, I keep frontosa, comps, leleupi, brichardi, loads of mbuna, peacocks, red empress, ahli, and more - all living happily together for many months. |
| 22-09-2006 20:22 by sonia |
i know from my research that leleupi and brichardi are tangy
the rest malawi? my only concern with that would be the brichardi breeding, has this happened yanton? |
| 22-09-2006 21:24 by Dr G |
In Yanton's list Frontosa and Comps are also tanganykan. Lots of potential problems in that mix as the fish mature. I don't want to go into these here and get embroiled in arguments. At the risk of being disloyal, the specialist cichlid forums are the place to visit. I would say though that I wouldn't be giving such strong advise on "many months" of experiance with these fish.
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| 22-09-2006 22:13 by yanton |
I have kept them for over a year like this, and prior to keeping marines, I kept them mixed like this for over 3 years.
Mind you, these are large roomy aquariums (6ft) with lots of rockwork. All is peace and quite. The only problem I had was when an adult pair of brichardi started to breed - they had to be moved. Honestly though, my mixed aquariums are very peaceful - many of the fish are adults, some are wild caughts. I have baby mbuna, brichardi and yellow leleupi darting in and out of the rockwork - a great show. |
| 25-09-2006 08:36 by PaddyD |
Tropheus will mix well with Mbuna in general, just be carefull on water quality as the tropheus are fussier.
I also usually have a julidochromis sp. in with my mbuna (not one of the big sp. though. Limnnocromis and aulocranus work will with auloncara and smaller haps. There are loads of possibilities, it really depends on waht you want to mix. If its mbuna and tangs it is a bit more difficult Peakocks and haps will be a bit easier to mix with tangs. |
| 25-09-2006 08:46 by Alan |
Personally I would go for a strict biotope but the key to mixing fish from the 2 lakes is to look at habits and dietary requirement.
Basically if you want to keep haps from malawi you can only keep carnivorous lake cichlids. If you want to keep mbuna you can only keep algae eating lake cichlids. This rule applies to when keeping either of the biotope set ups as well. Haps won't thrive on an mbuna diet and mbuna will get bloat on a hap diet. The other thing to consider is that mbuna are normally more aggressive over territory than predators which by their very nature of being predators do not hold a territory so if mixing mbuna you will need equally territorial fish from Tangynika. I would suggest you try mixing Tropheus with mbuna but consider the fact Tropheus are possibly more aggressive than mbuna and I have seen Tropheus fight to the death I have never seen an mbuna do this Tropheus will rip chunks out of trespassers whilst mbuna will beat the trespasser up until it submits and will then stop it from feeding. Or consider mixing Haps with fish like Brichardi and leleupi I personally would recommend going for the more peaceful fish from each lake those being the fish that do not hold territories or those that do not defend to the death. You have a good size tank so I would suggest going for Haps ideally a shoaling species like crytocara morii sometimes called blue dolphin a group of 6 would be good. Also go for a group of Kadango 2 males to 4 females the males will scrap for females so carfull design of the rock work will be needed and you won't need much rock work at all. Tangs to consider would be Brichardi or daffodil, a small group is best you will then get to see the matriarchal breeding behaviour far more interesting than any malawi behaviour. Julidochromis make a nice addition again these will be in the rock work I would suggest to get this to work you put ocean rock in both back corner but leave the middle of the tank open apart from a few flat stones for the haps I would also recommend a sand substrate for the haps to sift through morii in particular like to do this in the wild large groups will follow rostratus as it picks through the substrate picking up what they miss. Another possible tang for a mix is a small group of Neolamprologus tretocephalus. You best bet is to mix none teritorial rift lake cichlids as per my later suggestion as follows: Malawi: 6 x Kadango 2 male 4 female 6 x Crytocara morii aim for 2 male and 4 female but sexing these fish as juvenile is virtually impossible so just take what you get. Tangs: 6 x brichardi or daffodil (don't mix as they will inter breed) 6 x Neolamprologus tretocephalus often called the poor mans frontosa but a label like that does not do these fish the justice they deserve. 6 x Julidochromis sp 6 x Neolamprologus leleupi The fish I have listed above in habit different zones within the two lakes that will minimize mixing as the haps when adult will prefer the open space where as the Tangs I have recommended will stay in and around the rocks I would suggest you bond the rocks together for stability and build them up to the waters surface. As I have said sand is the best substrate far more natural than coral sand and I would suggest as a buffer you put aragonite sand in one of the chambers in the canister filter this is soluble at a ph of 7.8 and is a useful media to use at the last stage of a filter as the water will be at its most acidic at this point. I'm sure there will be plenty of people that disagree with me on this but I think this could be a succesful long term prospect. The 4x2x2 has enough depth front to back to enable the 2 biotopes to be succesfully catered for. |
| 25-09-2006 17:41 by sonia |
thanks for that i am particular interested in the Neolamprologus varieties, if anything i prefer tangs to malawi and thinking about just going tangs now, but if i do go for a mix will use your advice |
| 26-09-2006 20:51 by zzrpassion |
hi sonia, i have various mbuna and tangs. i started out with the trial and error until i found a good mix. I have 3 dominant males which occupy my 4ft tank one zeb one lombardoi and a burtoni mouth brooder. i also have crabroand johanni males they do not fight for territory they all have more than one female and pleanty of rock work and it works breeding constant. i also have a pair of lamprologus brichardi and the were v shy and became v stressed. i removed them to a 2ft tank and they have bred 3 times bearing many fry. hope this is some help
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| 03-10-2006 21:40 by sonia |
decided against it am getting so many conflicting reports about what i can and cant mix!!! |
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