Spiny Eels with African Cichlids

Narwhal

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Jan 11, 2017
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So as I have been rearranging my tanks I was thinking of moving my Pundamilia nyererei in with my Spiny Eel. It is a Mastacembelus frenatus that is about 5.5-6 inches long. I have kept it with Cyps, but you can keep them with most community fish. I have wanted to put the eel in with my Lake Victoria Cichlids for a little bit. I know people keep spiny eels with African cichlids a lot, I don't know how they all turn out. The eel is a pretty dainty thing right now, but I have seen a similarly sized yellow-tail eel in with some big haps that where much longer than it. I have heard cichlids tent to leave eels alone, and I have found they tend to leave most bottom feeders alone, my big Red Zebra hasn't really bothered my yoyo loaches I keep with him, but he did try an fight a featherfin syno. The male nyereri is the fish I am concerned about, he is starting to put on mass, but is still not a very big cichlid (maybe 2.5-3 inches at this point). He however is kept with plenty of smaller BNP and a petricola or petricola dwarf and although will chase them if in his way, he tends to ignore them and bother the female nyereri. The other fish don't look chewed up on their fins of bodies. My concerns are feeding the eel with I do with a turkey baster, and having the cichlids competing and chasing the eel away, or giving an injury to the eel, such as bitting off the nose or a chunk out of the tail, which again I haven't seen on BNP or my small catfish. Should I take the risk?
 

Just Toby

Fire Eel
MFK Member
Apr 22, 2010
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Guildford UK
Main problem with Africans is trying to keep the nitrate down, spiny eels suffer if the nitrate goes over 100ppm / 150ppm for prolonged periods in my experience.
 

thefredpit

Goliath Tigerfish
MFK Member
Jul 28, 2012
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usually a good fix for that is water changes. I've got 10 bichirs(6-12"), 10 plecos(5-12"), 3 spiny eels (10-16") along with several other smaller bioload fish in my 100 gallon tank(Planning to upgrade soon) and my nitrates never reach 50 because I replace the mechanical filtration regularly and do a 50% water change every 5-7 days
 

Just Toby

Fire Eel
MFK Member
Apr 22, 2010
2,434
175
66
Guildford UK
usually a good fix for that is water changes. I've got 10 bichirs(6-12"), 10 plecos(5-12"), 3 spiny eels (10-16") along with several other smaller bioload fish in my 100 gallon tank(Planning to upgrade soon) and my nitrates never reach 50 because I replace the mechanical filtration regularly and do a 50% water change every 5-7 days
Yes, that is fine with what you have, the post was about Africans though and you need to pack them in to keep the aggression down and they eat like pigs.

Some source water has nitrate in it too so without RO some people struggle. I do large waterchanges weekly and have a constant drip running to overflow 24/7 plus pothos growing in the tank and ion exchange resin taking tap water down to zero, I still run 25ppm
 
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