Mixing Africans

[Visualeyes2]

I have a 55 tank with 3 large Malawi cichlids 4-6" long, and a 10 gallon with 5 baby 1/2' Malawis in it. What do you think would happen if I put the baby Malawis in the 55 with the large ones?

[MySpace Mike]

They may kill the babies, they may not. I would wait til the babies are a bit bigger, then i would reshift everything around in the big tank, kinda like move decorations around so everyone is kinda new to the layout of the tank, make sure to add sufficient hiding spots for the babies to hide in, try to make small caves the larger ones cant fit into, it'll give the babies a good place to hide from the bigger ones.

[Coler]

^ plenty of hiding spaces/tunnels & passages small enough for the fry, too big for the adults is the way to do it.

I think you'd be ok.

[DeRo316]

Are the larger ones and the smaller ones the same species or different?

[Visualeyes2]

they're all mbuna-malawi africans

[DeRo316]

What species? What do they look like? Some are more aggressive than others.

[Visualeyes2]

55 has scolofi, kenyi, mixed similar to kenyi/blue zebra
10 has 2 kenyi, 1 red zebra, 1 red eye albino (scolofi, maybe?), and a mixed scolofi

[mezzy]

They'll be fine if you have a few rocks in there. Mbuna fry are lightning quick.
The best time to put them in is at night when its dark,all the big mbuna will be sleeping and wont notice them til the morning

[DeRo316]

If you want to keep them all I suggest keeping them in the 10 a little longer. Even then the Kenyi may tear them up within a week of adding them.

[GirlieGirl8521]

I'd wait until they were atleast 1-1.5" long, but thats just me. I'm overly cautious and I know just how vicious my Mbuna can be.

[silentskream]

try doing waterchanges in the small tank more often and feeding a little more often too (splitting the normal amount up into several feedings during the day)
by keeping the water super clean it sometimes increases the growth rate of juvenile fish in my experience. (although it's not working with my GBRs)

just do that for like a month, and see if they get a little bigger. if you've got lots of small hiding places though, that the big guys can't get into, you might be okay.

[DeputyChiefJR]

I currently have about 3 different species of Africans all about 3-4 inches long with a number of babies/small fish in there...With plenty of rockwork there's never a problem and I've even seen the small ones go up to the big ones without being given attention. Usually the larger ones are more concerned with what the other larger fish are up to...