I have mixed central american and even south american cichlids with africans several times with great success. Water parameters and diet werent so much a problem as was the aggression of the fish in relation to their size. I had an Acei and a Flowerhorn in with south americans and they did fine. They fought a bit with eachother but none suffered from water parameters. My fish usually come from larger retail chains who have centralized systems meaning every tank has the same water. They do fine there and they usually do fine with me.
Mixing african and american cichlids, and cichlid water parameters
- Thread starter piranha45
- Start date
My Jag would kill everything in the tank including his mate, he recently passed away. but now I can populate my 160 gallon with more than 1 fish. I'm going to try a mix of african and american cichlids. Not getting another Jag for a little while.
I attempted to mix Neolamprologus Christyi with an assortment of C.A. cichlids (salvini, JD, freddy, etc.). They were all fine as far as water parameters went, although the Christyi decided one day that they didn't want tankmates anymore, and I woke up to find several of the C.A's assassinated, and the rest huddled in the corners of a 90g shredded to pieces.
I mix .... they get along or one goes away... I had a problem trying to impliment a gar with my africans. I took him back to the store within 2 hours.... I even cleaned the tank completely and moved everything around over fed a little .. They woke up as soon as he hit the water... He was just too slow.. Plus non agressive... oops the days of the beginning hahaha... I liked him but hey that's why he went back...
my GT and 10 other africans are doing fine. My female GT jumped tank the other day. The male was giving her fits.
i have SA cichlids, CA cichlids, African cichlids from all the 3 lakes, Asian fish, and Australian fish.. lol.
it's kool to see an Angel fish feeding along side an African cichlid, then a huge SA cichlid 50 times bigger then the African cichlid gently grabbing a brine shrimp from the surface. all of my African cichlids have bred in the tank, with a few small fry still managing to survive. the biggest fry is about 3/4 of an inch now, but he's the only one that comes out to play. weird thing is I also have a 7 inch pike cichlid that doesn't bother the fry, she doesn't even try. she just eats pellets.. and nothing else.
they all get along fine.
it's kool to see an Angel fish feeding along side an African cichlid, then a huge SA cichlid 50 times bigger then the African cichlid gently grabbing a brine shrimp from the surface. all of my African cichlids have bred in the tank, with a few small fry still managing to survive. the biggest fry is about 3/4 of an inch now, but he's the only one that comes out to play. weird thing is I also have a 7 inch pike cichlid that doesn't bother the fry, she doesn't even try. she just eats pellets.. and nothing else.
they all get along fine.
