Unplanned tank transition: electric yellow labs need a dither--suggestiions?

M

mozart

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Mar 29, 2007
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Delawhere?
Well, I've always had a non-cichlid community tank (recently learned that cichlid keepers refer to their own "community" tanks as well). I lost my angel this fall and had a couple bosemani rainbows. I read that the labs are good "community" fish, won't eat plants, and that the bosemani rainbows were good dithers for the labs, so I bought some. All went well, so I added 1 more lab and 2 rainbows, and then all hell broke loose. Needless to say, all the rainbows and a platy are gone. I have 4 beautiful labs though. Still trying to work out gender ratios. Fairly certain I have at least 2 boys, concerned that I may 3. I love the look of the cichlids, but I really like having a planted tank. They are hiding too much, but I do occasionally see them hanging in group, so I'm not sure if the hiding is all about staking their own territory. I believe they need dither fish.
Thoughts or suggestions?
 
Went to another site since no response on AC. Barbs have turned out to be very nice dither fish for my yellow labs. Everyone appears happy and healthy. Thought I'd share.
 
what kind of barbs did you end up using? The only concern I would have with barbs and Labs(and other rift lake cichlids) would be water chemistry. But if your barbs are happy who's to argue with success right. Giant Danios would likely be another good choice that is closer to the Labs in terms of their water chemistry preferences.
 
Yellow labs are a mbuna cichlid. The only other fish you should mix with them are other mbuna of the same temperament. You can have a "community tank" as long as you stay with "like" mbuna and other Malawi cichlids. You also need caves or shelters so each fish can have their own. When talking of Malawi community, it is not the same as your general "Community freshwater" fish.

Auratus, Cobalt Blue Zebra, Electric Blue Ahli, Electric Blue Johanni, Featherfin Squeaker, Upsidedown Catfish, Zebra Cichlid are your best choices but that doesn't mean it is 100% guaranteed.
 
Curious about what kind of barbs you are using... I have a school of tiger barbs in a community tank (pH 8.3 and very hard since that is the water I have). The tiger barbs are doing great with my water, so that wouldn't be an issue. And they are scrappy little guys. If anyone could handle the yellow labs, I'd say they had a chance. I just never considered adding them to the African cichlid tank that I have.

Lisa
 
Odessa and some sort of extra red rosy type. They are all getting along fine so far. Of course the yellow labs are very mild-tempered cichlids. I've read outside of this site that a lot of people have tigers with their cichlids. Here's an old link on this site that I found that starts discussing.

http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?81911-Cichlids-and-barbs

So far they seem to be the perfect dither that they needed.
 
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