Bottom feeder / eel compatability

I

Ivan314

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Sep 24, 2003
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Hi, I'm new to keeping cichlids and have a question regarding compatability. I had a peacock eel that I really liked, before I set up a new 30gal with cichlids. I have (I know from info on the web that you purist will probably cringe) both African and South American varieties (small sized). Anywho, the cichlids must have ganged up on the eel at night, because he ended up floating (and the people were filled with sadness).

So now I want to get something to clean up the fish guts on the bottom. I thought about maybe another kind of eel that could defend itself better. But the whoe freshwater/marine debate with eels has got my head spinning. So I don't know if I'll go there, besides I'm afraid of another linching.

A buddy of mine suggest a good sized plecostomus, what say ye oh sage fish mongers?

Thanks
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there are alot of different bottom feeders that can go with cichlids. i would probably suggest synondontis, bristlenose plecos, or tiger botias. all will do a good job eating excess food, and can stick up for themselves.

you do have alot of rock caves and sightbreaks right? if not that is gonna be a big problem, africans need alot of caves, and so will the new fish, and you will want to completely rearange the tank just before you put the new fish in. this makes it so all the fish have to establish new territories.
 
Thanks Krib...

Good advice, thanks. Thats a good idea about re-arranging the rocks. I do have a fair amount of cave type setups (rocks from the creek by my house) . I was thinking the other day though that you could probably make some cool configurations with the kind of pre-fab stone products like you would find at Home Depot. You know, they don't look like something you would find in a lake, but you could probably make some nice caves. Do you think something like that would work / be safe? I guess if its stone like versus concrete it might be OK. Ever heard of any thing like that?

Also, I was thinking of maybe Discus or Angel (I only have 4 small cichlids now). Everything I've seen on the web says they should be OK with African cichilds, but they don't seem to be aggresive enough to defend themselves. Any thoughts?
 
dont put discuss or angels in, it wont work out, they arent fast, they wont hide in caves since they cant fit, and they wont be able to fight back well enough.

anything creating caves that isnt toxic or harmfull is ok.
 
I'll 86 the Discus and Angels - toxic rocks?

Yeah, I thought the Discus and Angels might have problems, but alot of other people said oh they'll be fine. I'm not real fond of trial and error when it comes to moderately expensive fish. So I think I'll take your advice. Ever hear of any interactions with Cichlids and eels (Like fresh water Morray)?

Do you know what kind of things would make rocks etc toxic? Obvioiusly you wouldn't want anything painted or treated. But I was thinking maybe those type of rectangular slaps they sell at Home Depot. I guess I'll have to look at them closer. Probably a good rule of thumb would be to aviod anything that has a "dusty" feel to it, versus solid stone. I guess if its "sealed" so to speak, it would be OK. I would use more rocks from the creek, but there's not many small flat ones, just big 50 pounders. We'll see...
 
the rocks dont by any means have to be flat, round smoot rocks work very well, just stack them in the back 2 corners going from the top of the tnak in the very corner down, like a hillside, it creates a great affect, the fish will all hang out in the middle and go in the back 2 corners when they want to go hide or whatever.

a dusty feel doesnt matter if it's netural rock, but no matter what you get you will need to treat it, boiling them will work, boiling them in water with 1/10 bleach is even safer, but not needed. if they are artificial rocks i would suggest not using them just to stay on the safe side.

there are tons of accounts of regular eels, like spiney and tiretrack eels going great with africans, was yours small or something. i would put my bet on the SAs.
 
There were mitigating factors with eel death...

No the peacock eel was a juvenile, but he was about 5-6" where my cichlids are only about 2" so far. It may have been several things that made a cumulative stress. That was during last week when my power was out for 5 days thanks to Hurricane Issabel. Plus I had bought some feeders, and wasn't paying attention to how big there were. The lady at the store said how many, and a buddy of mine says he buys a dozen at a time, so I said a dozen. So (this was about a week before the hurricane) they turned out to be bigger than I expected. And I think adding them (12) may have been a shock to the environment.

The peacock seemed to be healthier than he had ever been, very active, eating well, etc. Then I noticed he was kind of listless, and when I looked closer I noticed his tail fin was pretty chewed up, where it never was before. So he may have been sick, and the cichlids just sensed it, and struck the final blow. They didn't really eat him, so maybe it was other factors I suppose.
 
You don't say what type of SA and African cichlids you have. Either type can be aggressive. How big is your tank? What is your water like. You very well could have had an ammonia spike after adding that many feeders, together with your probably low oxygen (since your electricity was out for 5 days) level would be deadly because ammonia is more toxic with low O2.
Your right, angels and discus absolutely would not mix with Africans. Africans tend to be fin nippers and angels and discus are too slow moving. They would not have fins left.
 
Thanks Deb...do you all know any good books on cichlids?

Any good books, not too indepth though. I'm studying Anesthesia right now and thats enough text books. Something concise, easy to use?
 
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