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hello i am new here and also new to whole aquarium thing. after much thought and research on the subject me and my husband have decided to start out with cichlids.

we bought a 75 gallon tank and we are going to begin with some african cichlids.

my question is this. is it ok to put other kinds of fish with an african cichlid. if so what kinds can you put with them? i have heard that you should keep cichlids with cichlids. but i didnt know if this was true.

also i was just curious. is an angelfish a kind of cichlid? thanks so much for the info.

elizabeth

Welcome to FP,
Angels are cichlids but South American.

Some Africans can be pretty rough. You should post some of the names of the fish you are interested in and someone will tell you about them.

Have fun, Mike

psoting the names of the fish u r interested in wood help alot africans can b mean but it is possible to have other fish in the tank as long as the water chemistry works for both speices
angels n most africans altho both cichlids wont match up well in the same tank

since you said "african cichlids", i'm assuming you're referring to the common lake malawi mbuna cichlds. Most fish in this group are relatively easy to keep and are quite colorful so they are in my opinion a good starter for beginner cichlid owners.

And also remember, south american and african don't mix well, they will end up killing each other. Hope that helps

Oh yea, welcome to the wonderful world of cichlids:88)

Last edited by trojan_man at 19-Dec-2004 21:54

betahex i would have to disagree. Mbuna really isnt a good place to start. electric yellow ya maybe but this is the acception to the rule. its still agression and territories to the extreme.

1st time with cichlids i think south american would be a better start. not so agressive and can be housed with other community fish.

i started on Mbuna and i gotta tell ya all that agression isnt as fun to watch as some think. ya it creates alot of movement in the tank but its the same thing all the time. 1 fish chaseing another fish gets old after a while. dont get me wrong i still got my mbuna and enjoy watching the tank for a little while but if i only had that one tank to watch they wouldnt be in it. matter of fact midway through creating a mbuna tank out of my 75g i stopped and placed them in my 29g. didnt wanna sacrafice such a large tank for one personality.

i personally like alot of small fish in my tanks so ill recommend apistogramma, dwarf cichlids like rams, or kribs(african). this gives you the rest of the tank to put schools of fish or maybe a angelfish for a centerpiece. heck have both i am lol. 75 gallons is a whole lot of room and i recommend variety in personality.

Sin

Last edited by Sin in Style at 19-Dec-2004 22:34

i am not sure at the moment of any of the names of the african cichlids. is there any other suggestions on which ones you would keep? i do like the thought of being able to put other fish with them.

i will look again and let you all know. thanks for all this help.

any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

elizabeth

Hi.

Africans are nice choice. Lots of color and good personality.
When picking cichlids from lake malawi I would either pick either mbunas or go with peacocks and/or haps. Avoid mixing herbivores and carnivores with each other. Most mbunas, not all, are herbivores and due to the highly aggressive nature of these fish and for other reasons make this fish unsuitable tank mates for peacocks and haps. Some people like to go with one or two species in a tank. The male/female ratio of the species will depend on the type of the fish but usually at least 2females to 1 male. Other will do a mix of species in kind of cichlid community tank and when doing this setup it is important picking compatiable fish. My personal choice with malawi's would be the peacock/hap mix. By stocking peacock males only(females aulonocara will not color up like the males) and adding some haps like cytocara moori, red empress, or etc would give you a nice show tank with good color. Peacocks are my favorite, they have awesome color to them. A popular fish is the electric yellow and alot of people mix these with haps and peacocks. Even though it is a mbunas the electric yellow is an omnivore and it more timid than some other mbunas.
There is a lot more africans than just malawi cichlid.
Lake tanganyika has some interesting fish from shell dwellers, tropheus fronts and etc.
Lake victoria has awesome array of some beautiful fish. Nyererei and Astatotilapia are really nice exmaples.
Some people do not believe in mixing the different rift lake cichlids together, but as long as the diet requirements, aggression and other factors match you should not have no problems.
With the africans you should have harder water with higher ph. Tuffa and texas holey rock work well. Also a finer substrate that makes the water harder is recommended.
There other africans too and not just the rift lake cichlids.
Here is a good link to research some cichlids that interests you. http://cichlid-forum.com/profiles/index.php

Angels are south american and require different water conditions and would not work africans due to other reasons as well. Some non-cichlids I have seen in cichlid tanks are plecos and catfishs, zebra danios, gaint danios and some snails.
have fun.......................openwater

Last edited by openwater at 19-Dec-2004 23:09

Erock,

Just as a suggestion, if you want to avoid all the agression, I would recommend a nice community tank of smaller schooling fish. I have a 75 gallon one with rasboras, black neons, danios, a huge school of rummy nose tetras, ottos, and cories. There is something going on on all levels of the tank. There is no agression (other then the danios chasing each other) and I can watch it for hours.

non agressive fish not hard to find in a shop.

threadfin rainbow
Bolivian/German ram (cichlid)
Cory catfish these guys are very playfull and are clowns that will entertaine for hrs.
this is just some ideas. there are tons of off the wall fish that get ignored in the local fish store. packed with personality and colors with out the agression of African lake cichlids. if you want more ideas ill be happy to search some more for ya. my favorites is loaded with links.

PS-those are links up top.
Sin

Last edited by Sin in Style at 20-Dec-2004 08:06

sin,

that is really what we are looking for in fish. we really wanted a colorful tank. i personally want the more gentle fish that are just nice to watch. now my husband on the other hand (being a typical guy) would rather have the more aggressive fish. which is mostly why we went with the africans. i really love the colors of them, but he likes the fact that they are aggressive.

and oh my goodness...i had no idea there were so many names to all these fish. now i really dont have a clue at all which ones we were looking at.

when i think that i found them, i find another one that looks just like it. so i really dont know which ones we were looking at.

i do know there were some that were all white, some were yellow with black stripes, black, and some others than i cant think of right now.

thank you all so much for all the help. i really appreciate this a lot.

Like many have said, either go with

Community tank w/ South American cichlids
Mbuna cichlids
Peacocks and/or Haps cichlids

All have their pros and cons. I'd suggest staying away from Peacocks and Haps (haplochromine) as the females of them tend to be fairly drab in color.

I disagree with the statement of mbuna not beginning ok for beginners. I was very much a beginner when I started my 55 gallon w/ Pseudotropheus Saulosi and Labidochromis Perlmutts. The key to doing anything is research. Rely mostly on text and research by professions. Get peoples opinions who have kept the fish you have in mind. Never only go by what people say because for any 1 question, you can get 20 answers that are all very different, but correct to a point.

For their combination of color and aggression, I love mbuna (rock dwelling) cichlids from Lake Malawi. You just need to tailor the tank to what you plan to stock in it also.

If you want lots of plants and wood and such like that, I recommend South American. If you want some really nice rocks with a few plants, Africans are great too.

I suggest researching what looks attractive to you and then coming back with some more questions and possible fish you really want or look nice to you.

here are some african sites that may interest you. they will show you the majority of Lake cichlids-haps-peacocks. pictures of males and females alogn with information on behavior.
[link=http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/why_african_cichlids.php]http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/why_african_cichlids.php" style="COLOR: #FFFFFF[/link]
[link=http://www.cichlidforums.com/forumdisplay.php?s=35d9e1cd6d7a578f1c28bffd8628aab2&forumid=14]http://www.cichlidforums.com/forumdisplay.php?s=35d9e1cd6d7a578f1c28bffd8628aab2&forumid=14" style="COLOR: #FFFFFF[/link]
and one dwarf cichlid link.
[link=http://forum.apistogramma.com/index.php]http://forum.apistogramma.com/index.php" style="COLOR: #FFFFFF[/link]
and a little bit of everything. ( i dont like this site )
[link=http://www.aquaria.info/]http://www.aquaria.info/" style="COLOR: #FFFFFF[/link]