View Full Version : Just a stupid question.
OhioOilMan
05-19-2008, 7:14 PM
I was wanting to get some African cichlids and use my 55 gallon as their tank. but I have 4 pink convicts that are about the size of a quarter and cannot get rid of them. (even tried to give them to my LFS and they said no. not even just to get rid of them with nothing in return) but my question is, if I added some african rift's would they kill the cons? or would adding the rift salt kill them first????
Rbishop
05-19-2008, 7:29 PM
The salt wouldn't kill them. What rift lake cichlids are you thinking of?
OhioOilMan
05-19-2008, 8:18 PM
I really have no idea at my LFS they have a whole 40 gallon tank full of mixed variety. I seen a few peacocks in there but other than that I have no Idea and the young kid working there I'm sure has no idea neither because he said all he knew was that they were african rift lake cichlids and thats what they were labeled as. I have never had them before and my wife loved them.
Rbishop
05-19-2008, 8:22 PM
Most, not all, LFS carry mixed African tanks that are Malwai....can you catch some picks or links to what you are interested in?
OhioOilMan
05-19-2008, 8:41 PM
sure can I was going to snap a few on my camera phone but dummie me I left it in the truck and it was pouring down rain here earlier and didn't want to mess with it. I just figured I would go back tomorow or wednsday I will grab a few shots then. But for the most part my LFS always carries very lively, healthy spunky acting fish so I know that they are healthy.
The convicts are probably currently too small for the Africans to bother with. But presuming you have a mix of male & female you're probably going to end up convicted.
lol.
but anyway, have a look see at the Africans you like, and post a few pics up here and we can give you a steer. Broadly speaking you are probably seeing Lake Malawi fish at your LFS and most fish available from a 'mixed tank' can be broken into two groups, being Peacocks, or Aulonocara, and Mbuna (rockdwellers). The Peacocks are the guys with the large finnage and more bulbous eyes. Mbuna will have a more elongated/tubular body, less prominent eyes, and less 'Peacocky' finnage, especially the Dorsal fin.
What you want to avoid in a 55 is any of the third 'group' of Malawis, deepwater halplochromine species; these get large and predate on smaller fish
In a 55, you're probably better off to start with keeping either Peacocks or Mbuna, rather than mixing, especially as you have your convicts in there already; best not to over-complicate.
Generally you would either stock 1 male specimen of say 15 species, avoiding similar colourations, or more ideally you would stock 1 male and 2/3 females of say 3 or 4 species. The latter is a less mental tank as the lads and ladies distract each other from murder. The nice thing about mbuna is that both males and females are very colourful and attractive. Peacock males are beautiful but the females are basically meh. An all male Peacock tank would be visually stunning but tricky to get the balance right and not for beginners, in my opinion.
www.cichlidforum.com - check this site out. tons of info and some suggested stocking mixes for amongst other things Malawis.
AquariumNoob13
05-20-2008, 9:08 PM
malawai cichlids rule! i highly suggest getting an electric blue or regular ahli. possibly some labs? in a 55gal u cud get away with 1 ahli and possibly 5 labs?