Looking for any tips on my young africans, and a quick Bichir question

[Life Liberty Cichlids]

So I inherited my family tank. I was involved in the tank a ton growing up but this has been my first time setting it up on my own. It's an 80 gallon tall, with two power heads and a Fluval 600. I got my filter cycling beautifully and my ammonia has stayed below .25ppm through all fish additions, and I have been performing regular water changes to keep my nitrates at a safe level. I have researched ideal water conditions for each species and they are all currently in their ideal range. Right now, I have a 4" common pleco, 5 full grown tiger barbs, 5 3" clown loaches, a blue moorii who's about 2",a kenyi who's just a hair under 2", and a venustus who's right around 2.25". Everyone's doing well and my africans have been doing great with the barbs and loaches.

I know this is a somewhat atypical build using african cichlids with schooling fish, so I was just curious if the risk is more their ability to kill the barbs when they get bigger, or if the low numbers will stress them out? Also, any tips on africans in general other than watching for Malawi bloat? We only really kept New World cichlids growing up and I'm not sure if there are any key differences in care.

Also, I was curious about dino bichirs. They have a beautiful one at my LFS and I was curious if he could live a happy life in a tank with so many active swimmers. Any help is much appreciated!

 

[Robert Fling]

with most africans you really have to pack them into a tank to keep aggression down. When there with a lot of fish they won't pick on 1 individual fish. The aggression will be spread out, the moori is a way less aggressive species then the venustus and the kenyi I believe is mbuna. I'd be worried about them growing up and then having the biggest and baddest beat on your other fish and stressing them out to the point they could die. In my opinion you either keep africans or you keep community fish, from my understanding they really don't mix well. I'm no expert but I do have a peacock and hap tank and the more fish I put in there the less nipped fins I see. If you do decide to keep africans make sure you add 3 or 4 at a time so the aggression is spread or you'll have some hagard ass fish.

 

[Life Liberty Cichlids]

What you just said is basically what I've noticed. My moorii doesn't have any issues with anyone yet, but he is less aggressive than the venustus and kenyi. Currently, I'm planning on either adding another 4 africans and making a spawning pair of mooriis, or rehoming my africans and buying a jaguar cichlid. I like the africans, I just don't know that I have the money to put down on the number of them that belong in this aquarium and didn't realize that starting out.

 

[chopsteeks]

There are a great number of African cichlid species. But the number can be narrowed down if we classify them as groups. There are Mbuna cichlids, Peacock cichlids and Haplochromis Cichlids. Now within these 3 groups, each has highly aggressive species, but there are also passive ones. In my experience, The Mbuna group has the most number of aggressive species. Overcrowding a Mbuna tank is recommended to spread out aggression.

One technique to lower aggression is to have all male tank.

Likewise the size of your tank will determine which species of Africans will be suitable for your tank.

I currently have Africans with clown loaches, silver dollars with no issues. Also, aggression is mostly conspecific, aggression within the species.

So yes, it is very doable to have Africans with loaches, tiger barbs and plecos.

One last note....be aware of diet requirements if you decide to give the Africans a try.

 

[predatorkeeper87]

I have no experience with cichlids period but from what I've heard Africans are mean little sobs, but judging from the above comments its a doable thing, though I thought water reqs between the differing regions would be an issue. The dino bichir you are talking about is almost assuredly a Senegal bichir, which would do fine in that 80 gal. They rarely push past 8" in length since most are captive bred.

 

[Life Liberty Cichlids]

The loaches in my tank can range from 6.8-8.0 on water ph, the barbs will take whatever they can get along with the pleco, and the africans want 7.6+. I'm at 7.6 right now so all of my fish are flourishing, but I think I'm going to rehome the majority of them because my tank is really better designed for a single cichlid build. I'm leaning toward parachromis managuensis

 

[predatorkeeper87]

The loaches in my tank can range from 6.8-8.0 on water ph, the barbs will take whatever they can get along with the pleco, and the africans want 7.6+. I'm at 7.6 right now so all of my fish are flourishing, but I think I'm going to rehome the majority of them because my tank is really better designed for a single cichlid build. I'm leaning toward parachromis managuensis

gonna need a way bigger tank than an 80, especially an 80 tall for a jag.

 

[Life Liberty Cichlids]

Oh I'm well aware. I'm thinking at about 10" he'll need a 125 wide.

 

[boldtogether]

Some of the Africans can get fairly large. Venustus being one. It will be an aggressive fish when mature. Also, some species of Africans can and will change sex in the absence of the other sex...like Auratus...and talk about mean.

 

[Robert Fling]

I actually expeienced that first hand when I started this hobby. And it was an Auratus.^