Mixing Cichlids

Aaron

Aaron

Large Fish
#1
Sep 15, 2004
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#1
I was at my LFS yesterday afternoon and saw a really great looking fish I think it was called a yellow labid. Apparently they are very common but I'm new to cichlids. Anyway the salesperson said I could add it to my tank with my convict and firemouth but I thought mixing africans and americans was something that just wasn't done. Just to be safe I didn't buy it but is it something that can't or shouldn't be done?
 

T

TaffyFish

Superstar Fish
#2
Jan 30, 2003
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#2
Purists would say don't mix continents, some even say don't mix lakes! It depends on where you want to draw the line and whether the needs of the fishes can be met. Whenever you come up with a rule, you'll find a fishkeeper who's doing the seemingly impossible. Why do you think it's a good idea? Do you just like their colour? What size tank do you have and do you have either convicts or firemouths breeding? What are the water parameters?

Yellow labs are mbuna I believe and have very different water and dietary requirements than the Americans. It's not something I would do myself but I've seen mixed cichlid tanks in the past......which included some war zones!
 

W

wayne

Elite Fish
#3
Oct 22, 2002
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Yellow labs are African and the others are Central American. In all honesty the majority of C AMerican cichlids come from similar water chemistry as African Lakes fish. Hard and high pH. West African, S American and some C American come from soft and acid.
But it's not that easy. There are big, big differences in behaviour between mbuna cichlids from malawi, and C Americans. Most mbuna, including labs are not especialy 'tied' to a piece of territory. C Americans are. So they don't understand each others behaviour, and depending on size the C Am will attack the oblivious mbuna as it keeps going into it's territory, and someone will win. In this case I would imagine a con to win as labs are so placid.
People get away with it, but I wouldn't recommend it.
 

T

Tanganyikaman18

Small Fish
#5
Oct 11, 2004
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#5
I have a Lab and i used to have a Convict and a Jack Dempsey and they all got along great my other fish enjoyed there company too, they sadly got a fungus and passed away before I could treat it completely, but anyways they were all very happy together, it all depends on the personality of the fishes
 

Aaron

Aaron

Large Fish
#8
Sep 15, 2004
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#8
Actually it was the colour that drew me in. I have the tank pretty understocked and a nice spiffy yellow fish would look great but the last thing I want is to have a fish die because I liked its colour. Maybe I'll just get another firemouth.
 

W

wayne

Elite Fish
#9
Oct 22, 2002
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#9
How big is the tank. Most people buy these fish for the behaviour rather than the colour.
A good rule of thumb is these fish will defend a territory 6 times it's body lengh, or at least try
 

Aaron

Aaron

Large Fish
#10
Sep 15, 2004
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#10
It's a 35 gallon. I have one firemouth, one convict, four figure 8's and my redtailed shark I moved from the 20 gallon. Actually I love the behaviour of my firemouth and convict. My firemouth spends hours making faces at himself in the glass and my convict attacks his food so hard it makes a loud "cracK" when he breaks the surface. I've actually seen a few of my friends jump a bit.
 

Aaron

Aaron

Large Fish
#13
Sep 15, 2004
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#13
The cichlids are both juveniles with the firemouth barely 1.5" and to me the tank looked pretty empty. Anyway I got the go ahead from the Mrs. and around mid November/early December we are upping the 35 to a 90 for the cichlids. Would that be big enough for them? The new tank will be cichlid only.

The LFS told us our current setup would be fine but it is slowly becoming obvious that it is not. The puffers haven't hurt anything (except snails and any loach I have ever tried) as long as I've owned them, which has been a very long time. My convict however has setup the entire bottom left portion of the tank as his territory and will chase anything that dares set a fin near his cave.
 

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