Something special to mix with African Cichlids

[Cyclop3000]

Hey all. Just received my 130g and am starting the setup. Got good filtration (1xEheim 2217 and 1xFluval 404), lots of water movement and lots of room for new fish. I was planning on moving the inhabitants of an established 32g african cichlids community (13 fish, all below 4" still juveniles) to this tank, and add more african cichlids.

But then here is my problem...I am a lover of odd, large, weird and fairly uncommon fish. Now if i fill the tank up with african cichlids, what can I add to this tank to help spice it up a little? I thought about eels, rays, polypterus, crayfish, even crabs. Don't know what would work best in there, can anybody help me find a nice oddity for that tank? Cost me a pretty penny, i don't want it to be boring...

Thanks!

 

[rayman45]

umm
this is tuff

fl. whip rays can got b/w

cray fish are usally less then 2$ so y not

crabs try red claw crabs but i heard they need basking spot

 

[piranha45]

A large american cichlid, like a texas/trimac/oscar/jaguar/istlanum/grammodes/salvini/festae/urophthalmus/midas/blackbelt/greenterror

a tilapia

some north american sunfish, like longears/bluegill/greens/etc.

 

[Cyclop3000]

umm
this is tuff

fl. whip rays can got b/w

cray fish are usally less then 2$ so y not

crabs try red claw crabs but i heard they need basking spot

Hey thanks for the quick replies guys! Rayman, sorry but i don't understand what you mean...what is a "fl. whip ray" (it's the fl. i don't get...), and what does "b/w" mean? Sorry first day on this forum...My lfs has a couple of rays for sale, but I don't even think they can identify them properly...in general can rays take higher pH?

Piranha: I always thought that american cichlids and oscars and such would not do well in high pH water? Am I wrong?

And how about eels? I would love a large eel in this tank...can any withstand the water chemistry?

 

[piranha45]

pH is perhaps one of the most drastically overrated factors when it comes to keeping fish.

African cichlids do fine in ph 7, and American cichlids do fine in pH 8. They are versatile rugged fish capable of thriving in any reasonable aquarium habitat, regardless of what the textbooks and fish-newbies might say.

Moray eels are brackish-salt water. You can't keep them with your africans. The Spiny eel group, though, is freshwater, but they don't look much like morays. This group includes spiny eels, fire eels, tiretrack eels.

Bichirs are another possibility. Any specie other than perhaps Ornate would do fine in your tank. However, many species are very lazy. Palmas, senegalus are two of the more common and active bichir species. You could keep several of them in your tank. Ropefish would work too.

 

[Daddyo72]

It's not good to add only one fish to an African tank. Add just one and it will most likely kill it. Add a few if you can. At the very least move the decor COMPLETELY around and give the fish a chance. This will throw off the territories of your Africans.

 

[piranha45]

when it comes to cichlids, my experience has differed quite greatly from yours. If they're the same size or smaller, the CA will be put in its place, but naturally within a few months it will outgrow and dominate the africans with ease.

all my fish ignore bichir/ropefish tankmates.

 

[Cyclop3000]

ok, glad to see i am not the only one thinking that pH does not matter that much. I went to my lfs so often that I made friends with one of the girl that works there, and she confessed that all their tanks were at 7.6, no matter what fish. So since that day I don't check the ph that often, and don't use any chemicals to raise the ph. It's only that the substrat I have reacts with the water and raises the ph to approx 8.0-8.4, and i'm not too used to rays and eels.

Fire eel sounds like fun to me, i read they can become quite large too. Any idea on the growth rate of such an eel? Would hate to see my africans all eaten up by the eel cause it's growing too fast (but i doubt, probably the opposite i guess...).

Oh and you're right, polypterus ARE lazy...i got one in a south american tank and barely see it...so no go for the new tank.

Thanks!

 

[Daddyo72]

Just remember what I said. It is a very real posability. My Africans don't tolerate any newbies to the tank and need additions in the above fashion. Our Arutas are real killers.

 

[Daddyo72]

Senegalus are really active.