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i've read that firemouths can be kept with african lake cichlids .

i don't think they can

what do you think

I think, off the top of my head, that the firemouth's native waters in mexico are actually slightly alkaline, by contrast to most american cichlids. Though only about 7.4 rather than the 8s + 9s you need for a rift.
So generally, I think it could be done, since a firemouth is tough enough to live with smaller rift fsh. But there are differences in ideal PH and food, so it wouldn't be perfect. It's not like putting a pike in with neons though.
on a vague tangeant, I keep a kribensis and a firemouth together. I think most african river-cichlids could probably live with new world cichlids in terms both of temperament and water conditions.

Basically it's a general rule that you nvr put new worlds and africans w/ eachother cus the pH dif

Daka

I think as long as you have a large enough tank with plenty of caves it could be done depending on what type of african cichlids your talking about. The new world cichlids do like a slightly more acidic water than the africans,but as long as you keep it around 7.5, everyone should be happy.

thanks for your replies.

would you think that the firemouths hardness of around 100ppm would be to soft for peacocks with preferred hardness od 300ppm(i think).

I think it would be possible to reach a happy medium between the 2. Just be careful with what type of peacocks your interested in putting in with the firemouth as some types of peacocks may not be compatible with the firemouth. Good Luck!

I suggest highly against mixing south american and african fish. They are completely different in requirements, and in speech so to speak.
These fish will be unable to "communicate" properly with body language their messages to each other. This will likely result in chaos, injury, and possibly death to one of the parties.
You should never mix fish who speak different languages together, one fish may be saying "hey, nice to meet you", but the other one might see it as "wanna fight? I could whup your behind in a second!".
I say you have a surefire recipe for disaster on your hands!


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Sneaky_pete has the best reason not to keep new world's with africans. they do "speak a different language" which can lead to unnecessary fights and/or deaths.

as far as water params. go, there are many areas in Central America where during certain parts of the year the ph gets as high as 8.2+ and as hard as the waters in malawi. granted this is a very generalized statement, but usually Central americans prefer a ph in the 7.4 to 8.0 range while most South americans prefer 7.2 or less.

I would not try it with Mbuna but with Peacocks and Malawi Haps you shouldn't have a problem. The water requirements a very simular and the diet shouldn't be a problem either. The whole language thing is way overrated since every species has it's own language. If you want to argue the language thing then you should really only have a tank that has fish from the same lake or river. Central america is big and has many different species in many different rivers and lakes that would never encounter each other in the wild so how would they speak the same language.

Central america is big and has many different species in many different rivers and lakes that would never encounter each other in the wild so how would they speak the same language.

But, all Central American cichlids, and most if not all South American Cichlids as well, communicate with each other in the same way. When they are showing aggression, defending a territory or just mad they "darken up". When trying to get a fish out of it's territory, a New world cichlid will flare up and charge at the opposing fish to scare it away. When a New World cichlid is stressed or showing submission to a dominant fish it's colors will become very pale.

Many Africans communicate in the opposite manner. Darkened coloration indicates stress or submission while lighter colors indicate aggression.

You can see where these differences in communication could cause unnecessary fighting.

And of course, there are also good reasons not to mix Central and South Americans at random, either; just because as a group one can say they shouldn't be mixed with Africans doesn't mean automatically that they can all be housed with each other, so that's not a valid argument for mixing. I don't think either Angels or Oscars belong in a Malawi tank, not least because of communication problems, but I also don't think those two species should be kept together. Those are two separate issues.
Besides, and maybe I'm the only one who thinks about it this was, but - why would you want to mix them? If you could have a beautiful tank with fish that know how to deal with each other, that eat the same food and like the same water, why add in a species from another continent? At best they'll look out of place and be confused and unhappy; at worst they or their tankmates will be dead. There are thousands of possible setups with either SA/CAs or Africans - why would you want to mix them?



Like the color change, Jason.

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thanks again for your replies,

i didn't want to keep them together at all.
i just needed other peoples views so that i could have some backup for an argumet i am having with a freind.]:|