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Unfortunately I can only manage one medium size tank, but I like many different types of fish. So I'm giving up on the idea of sticking to a geographically based tank.

I'm wondering if this mix could work in a 45g (long & skinny):

2 - 3 firemouths
2 male peacocks
a school of rainbows
some type of bottom feeder/scavenger
and/or an algae eater.

How does that sound? Any suggestions on alternate arrangements?

The Firemouths might cause some problems.

Problems could arise in the future as the firemouths and the peacocks will have very different requirements regarding environment and food requirements. Firemouths are New World cichlids (SA/CA) and Peacocks are Old World (Malawi).

Some people say keeping africans and new worlds are fine, but that is because they want to do it, not out of the best interests of the fish.

based on the profiles I've read they seem pretty similar, could you please elaborate on the different requirements?

My big concern would be if you have M/F firemouths and they spawned; I've never kept peacocks, maybe someone with experience can give input from that angle.

Personally I think if pH, temp, hardness requirements, etc are similar you could give it a try. Not exactly the same but I keep kribs with my CA/SA cichlids without problems.

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There is water at the bottom of the ocean

The problems occurs from the fish not being kept near the optimal condition of their natural habitat. This not to say that most fish won't adapt to variety of water parameter, they will. It just is better for the fish to have parameters near that thier original habitat. There will less stress, better coloration, optimal growth and different water parameters make it immpossible to breed some species. African Rift Lake cichild prefer to have harder water and higher ph 8.0-8.2. South american prefer to have to lower ph and softer water. Some people keep them together and some don't. I personally don't. My tap water is hard and high ph so with the addition of a natural substrate and water hardening rocks I can have water parameters that are close to Lake Malawi, but different than the water of southern and central america. Another point to make is, it is better IMO to leave the ph close to your water source then it is to constantly adjust it, LESS stressful on fish. Firemouth will really show best coloration when kept close to their natural water conditions.

Peacocks are very nice fish, lots of color and good personalities. If you go with peacocks I would just stick with males. An knowledgable LFS(sometimes hard to find) employee should be able to sex the juveniles. I have been able to do that with my peacocks. There is a couple of species that can not be sexed as early as the others. The females have no color and are very drab. Their is a high risk of crossing breeding of species among peacocks because the females resemble each other. In my own opinion, the amount of time and money spent, the peacocks will turn out to nicer and more colorfull.

Last edited by openwater at 13-Oct-2004 17:32

For the record, here is an excerpt from a journal I found online kept by craig Morfitt when he went on a collecting trip led by Rusty Wessel. They were collecting in Mexico which is the home to Firemouths as well as many other Thorichthys species.

Water readings were pH 8.0, Total Alkalinity 180 ppm and Total Hardness 425 ppm. These readings came as quite a shock to me. They are not far removed from the readings of Lake Malawi and are certainly not what I expected to find in Mexico. This high hardness reading is probably caused by the abundance of limestone in the area.

Every other location they collected and recorded the water parameters the ph was 7.6. If you'd like to read the whole journal you can [link=here]http://www.aquarticles.com/articles/travel/Morfitt_Mexico.html" style="COLOR: #FFFF00[/link].

Personally I wouldn't keep Malawis with New worlds, but only because of behavioral differences. If it were my 45 gallon I'd go with firemouths and platys.

That just goes to show how fish can adapt to different water parameters. If you have your heart set on both try it. Most peacocks get the same size of firemouths and some can be just as nasty. When I first got my peacocks alot of people said they where docile and peaceful, I've learned different since as compare to other haps and malawi fish. Aulonocara baesnchi is really nice bright colorful peacock if interested.

Last edited by openwater at 13-Oct-2004 18:03

id say it could work unless your buying your fish from the wild they will have never been in there natural water. and the water at the farms where they are breed isnt exactly perfect its most probly all nutral. can you imagine regulating the pH off say 200 tanks 3 times a week. quite dawnting.

wow, thanks for all the comments.

I was originally planning on a firemouth/swordtail/platy tank, but I can't resist the thought of having some colourful peacocks in there.

I want to minimize aggression in the tank so I guess I'll just forget about the firemouths.

What would be good tankmates for the peacocks?