That is Paratilapia sp Andapa.
They are quite drab when young, but color up quickly.
They are quite drab when young, but color up quickly.
Mixing cichlids!?!?
- Thread starter Cichlidnoob
- Start date
I bought a tank which already had a bunch of Africans (mbuna & synodontis) and blood parrots and green severums. The juvenile mbuna realised that the parrots couldn't bite back, and tormented them, so I had to rehouse the parrots. The severums have stayed with the Africans and they and the mbuna pretty much ignore each other.
The mbuna are not the most aggressive varieties - yellow labs, rusties & yellow-tailed acei. They chase each other a lot, but nothing serious. They will take on a synodontis that is twice their size, but steer clear of the severums.
When the severums and blood parrots were in together there was serious bad feeling. I think that was because of having a similar body shape.
Fish that are similar see each other as competitor. Fish that are dissimilar tend to ignore each another. This is why mixing Africans and CA can achieve greater harmony than all Africans or all CA tank. We all use dither fish to induce calming effect or diffuse aggression, so why not mix in dissimilar CA and African to achieve similar effects.
Size difference between CA and African may be a constraint as many CA are large fish while majority Africans are small to medium fish. There are many medium size CA to choose from in the Thorichthys and Cryptoheros families that match the size of Africans; unfortunately they are often referred to as lowly convicts.
I have successively kept large Vieja species with small Africans with no issue due to peaceful nature of the species. But I don’t think super aggressive Midas, Trimac or FH would work, neither would super aggressive Mbuna such as Kenyi or Chipoki tolerate other fish including their reflections.
I much prefer mixing than keeping pure species tank as I found an all Malawian tank boring due to lack of diversity of body shape, color and behavior.
Size difference between CA and African may be a constraint as many CA are large fish while majority Africans are small to medium fish. There are many medium size CA to choose from in the Thorichthys and Cryptoheros families that match the size of Africans; unfortunately they are often referred to as lowly convicts.
I have successively kept large Vieja species with small Africans with no issue due to peaceful nature of the species. But I don’t think super aggressive Midas, Trimac or FH would work, neither would super aggressive Mbuna such as Kenyi or Chipoki tolerate other fish including their reflections.
I much prefer mixing than keeping pure species tank as I found an all Malawian tank boring due to lack of diversity of body shape, color and behavior.
I agree with much of your post and think it's possible to mix fish from continents if you want to, but don't fully agree with this logic. I think the CA cichlids will still see the Africans as cichlids, and thus competitors, much more than a dither fish. What you're describing are target fish, dither fish would be fish which are not seen as competitors, and don't diffuse aggression, but make fish feel comfortable, since in the wild (ca cichlids at least) use them to gauge threat from predators above.
For example, a Salvini cichlid looks about as similar to, say, a Red Devil as an African cichlid would- it would be smaller, different body shape, different colors. But, the red devil will know that it's a cichlid and compete with it for dominance. If there were schooling fish like silver dollars in the tank, it would have a much better chance of ignoring them, since it wouldn't see them as competition. I've worked in LFS's for many years now and have had to balance temporary stocking of our cichlid tanks- I've mixed africans and centrals plenty of times in this context, and then done cichlids with non-cichlid dithers. The centrals IME know that the africans are cichlids regardless of color and body shape.
I remember you posting your tank- I'm not meaning to bash you at all, I very much liked your pair of panamensis, since I keep them myself. But if I remember, the tank was a 55 gallon which had lots and lots of cichlids in it, including the large viejas, panamensis, and africans, etc. I think that your success aggression-wise is largely due to how many cichlids were all in such a small tank, so many target fish- and not primarily due to the dissimilarity of the cichlids. Long post, but my point is, I think centrals would absolutely see africans as opponents, and not dither fish.
Cichlid will always see other cichlid as greater competitor than non-cichlid. All cichlid are territorial, so they will always compete if not provided with adequate personal space. But there is hiararchy of competition depending on closeness of the species. Conspecific aggression is the highest, next come within the same genus, and less with more remote genus. Adult cichlid are more territorial than juvies which tend to school more than to compete, and breeding cichlid are always intolerant. There are bullies in the cichlid world that will attack any target, related or not. I had to rehome an 5 star general and a polleni that chased every cichlid. My Victorian cichlid would challenged every new commer, but due to his small size, he couldnt do much harm and eventually calmed down. Size also matters in term of perception of competition. My large Vieja Bifas was peaceful to all unrelated cichlid tankmates smaller than him, but one day he took out a Boucouti that grow up to size near him. It turns out that Boucouti is rather close to and at one time classified as Vieja.
It all depends on the combo. Dovii with shell dwellers will result in the Dovii eating all the shell dwellers. However the combo that I see working a lot is this: medium sized CA cichlids such as Firemouths and Convicts paired with Peacocks. The water requirements are virtually the same, and none of these fish are aggressive enough to cause lots of damage. Plus the peacocks can act as fish that fill the top parts of the tank.
