new to african cichlids

[cichlid]

hopefully i'll be getting my 125 soon, and i'm hoping to try some african cichlids this time.....

does anybody have any experience with dimidichromis compressiceps?

how would a pair do in a 125gal? will there be room for others?
how are these in terms of aggression etc?

i'm also interested in Aulonocara sp. "Rubescens", OB peacocks etc...

i'm primarily interested in malawi cichlids and would like any insight on compatability and how much fish a tank that size can house....

also, i've also seen a lot of africans being raised in trios, i was interested in what the reason behind this was...(since i've only kept "american" cichlids and never seen a trio)...

thx for the help! :D

[Wench]

I can't help you with your choice of fish, the only africans I have are yellow labs and blue colbalts.
The reason behind the trios, in most cases its best to have one male to several females so no one female is being harrassed by the male to mate. Because as we all know, males can and will be relentless :p

Good luck with your tank.

[Co/\/vict]

well I did a small search just for you and found this....

http://www.notcatfish.com/findex/fish/dimidichromis_compressiceps.htm

The rest of the sites are in foreign languages, but I would say, since they are only 8" long, even though they may be mean, I think that you can keep 2 in a 125, my LFS has a full size one, I don't think that he's that mean either.... Cool fish though...

[BigOh]

Pretty much all Malawian cichlids are polyagomous (sp?) mouth brooders. Meaning that males will mate with multiple females ... likewise females may mate with multiple males.

These fish do not form pairs like the cichlids you are used to keeping.

Keeping multiple females for each male spreads out the sexual aggression.

For African Cichlid only discussion visit:
http://www.african.uklinux.net/phpBB/index.php

[JSchmidt]

Originally posted by cichlid
hopefully i'll be getting my 125 soon, and i'm hoping to try some african cichlids this time.....

does anybody have any experience with dimidichromis compressiceps?

how would a pair do in a 125gal? will there be room for others?
how are these in terms of aggression etc?


thx for the help! :D

I think they'd do OK, although a trio or quartet (1M:3F) would be better.

I've not found D. compressiceps to be that aggressive. They're nice in that they are more mid- or top-tank swimmers, which helps balance a tank with rock-loving mbuna.

Several compressiceps should look nice, gliding thru a 125...

Jim

[Reiner]

One thing to keep in mind though is that they are fish eaters. So anything that fits in there mouth will be considered pray. Which means when they are fully grown and you want to introduce fish to the tankthey have to be fully grown or at least 4" big.