Am I out of my over-stocking mind?

yes it definately would. You should not under any circumstances add ANY african cichlids or south american cichlids to a community tank. unless they are rams or apistogrammas. They would be a much better choice. I recommend the double red apistogramma.

too general

There are cute, shell-dwelling lamprologines, like brevis, that will probably be OK.

yeah, but I don't think they'd be ok with neons and tail-light tetras. I've never heard of mixing african cichlids with tetras before. Even shell dwelling cichlids.

Don't know how big an impact it would have, but don't the shellies prefer liquid rock instead of soft, tetra-loving water?

Originally posted by Myrt
...the water is medium hard...

Click to expand...

If the tetras can adjust to this not so "soft,tetra-loving water", perhaps the "shellies" could too?

BTW Myrt, IMO, it is better to give your plants away (at cost of shipping of course) to fellow hobbyists then to let the fish shred them. Funny, my water is 7.6 and med. hard too. You're not in central NY are you?

I can't imagine Brevis bothering tetras, although I haven't done the experiment. I had a similar mix set up with julies for several years, and everybody was quite happy. Lamprologines have never paid particular attention to non-cichlids that they can't fit into their mouths, IME. The lamps will stay low, the tetras will inhabit the upper parts of the tank.

As far as the generality of mixing tetras with africans, there is a lot of diversity to choose from on either side. Larger tetras, like Buenos Aires, do very well as dithers with mbuna or haps.

The water parameters are something of an issue, but everybody should be fine in the "medium-hard, pH 7.6" water described above. Yes, Tanganyika is very hard and alkaline, but the fish can do OK in more normal water.

If Myrt was going to put effort into decreasing the pH and hardness for the tetras (I'd advise against it) then apistos or rams would be more appropriate. Otherwise, I'll stick by my original post.

The M ramorezei, alias rams , would be ok, but I think the brichardi would be hellish in there. Plenty of other good dwarfs

actually the rams are MAY not be okay because i had a pair of rams. notice the had? one of them bit off my tetras tail and my corys fin continously. it was not just a tiny nibble but lots of tiny nibbles until my tetras and cory had badly frayed fins and tails. BUT the other ram doesn't. in fact it is a very timid butterfly ram that flees at the sight of a shadow. so i guess rams like people have personality. so if you want rams i guess you have to go through trail and error until you find a ram that can live with your tetras AND not bite their fins and tails!

hope that helps!

edit: oh if you want to know what happen to the 'aggresive' ram, i had to give it away. oh well, and it was really beautiful with flowing orange fins. and a nice pale orange body. of darn thinking of it makes me sad cause it was one of my fav fish before it started biting!