Building a community around Pelvicachromis taeniatus "Moliwe"

[Tophat665]

Hey there. Not getting any traction on this question in General Freshwater, so let's give it a shot where the folks know something about West African riverine cichlids....

I picked up a bag of Moliwes at auction last week and set them up in a 40 long. Couple of sponge filters, lots of caves, mixed substrate heavy on the sand and mulm, floating some driftwood, will be planting it heavily over the next month or 2.

At the moment, though, they're rattling around like peas in a bass drum (They're all about 1" long or a bit less).

I have been pondering adding some killifish to the mix. I have 2 pair of Aphyosemion striatum "Myoko" and a trio of Fundulopanchax gardneri "Gold". I was pondering adding the A. striatum to the 40 after I get a spawn or two out of them.

What do y'all think? Good idea? Bad? Need more info to know?

Help a brother out.

That's step one. Once I have some idea on that, we'll move on to step 2.

 

[Inka4040]

Never kept the taenies, but I've had great success mixing apistos and killies. Once I figured the ideal median temp for them, it wasn't that hard to get both producing fry at a respectable rate, and given the differences in preferred areas, both groups of parents tended to stay away from the others' fry. The important thing to remember is to provide sufficient cover for everyone. The java moss that baby apistos love to feed in also happened to be a perfect spawning medium for C. bitaeniatum they lived with. Hope this helps.

 

[Tophat665]

Excellent, thanks! I guess the bottom line is give it a try and see what happens.

 

[SubRosa]

Why not keep it real and use a school of Procatopus similis "Moliwe"? You can be sure they like the same water!

 

[Tophat665]

Well, that would work, but I have Aphys on hand, and I have never seen lampeyes of any species for sale hereabouts (and I understand that they ship poorly, and am not thrilled with the concept of shipping fish on a retail level to begin with. Not rational, but I've learned to deal with that.)

 

[SubRosa]

If you have interest I have a colony that I just set up a couple of weeks ago. No production yet, but when I see some I could ship you some eggs. They ship very well and aren't too difficult to raise. If your local LFS deals with Atlantis Tropicals for their African Cichlids and will do special order you can get them. I drove up to Atlantis to get mine.

 

[Tophat665]

PM sent

 

[N0bodyOfTheGoat]

Hi, I'm about to go on a West African semi-predatory biotope adventure and I'm interested in your Fundulopanchax gardneri. I currently plan Golden Wonder Panchax instead of any African killis, as the Panchax is a top dweller (vital as mid and lower is sorted) and will hold its ground against the 10cm+ fish living below them.

Would love to hear back from you about your experince of the gardneri