A Cichlid Question

[FishLover14]

For a 55gal freshwater what kind of cichlid society would you reccommend?

Is it big enough to have a mixed society of american/lake societies?

Are big american cichlids robust enough to stand up to some smaller lake malawi and lake tangkynia cichlids?

Big american cichlids like severums, festivums, firemouths, blue acrare, etc. Thanks fot he comments. Dan

[poppab02]

I don't believe festivums are mixable with firemouths, acara's and severums. They do much better with angelfish and are much smaller than the other species.

Do not mix american and african species of cichlids. Alot more problems than it's worth and they simply have different temperments, pecking orders, water quality needs, etc.

I personally would say that severums, firemouths, acaras and other american cichlids do not exhibit their full spectrum of behavior until about 75-100 gallon tanks. I would recommend a tank that big for those species of american cichlids to be kept together.

55 gallons is a pretty good size for an african community, I would say you would probably be better off starting an african tank in the 55 than an american species tank when taking into account the adult size of the fish.

[TankGirl]

Welcome to AA, FishLover14

It can be done, mixing ARLC and New World cichlids, but they do have different water preferences so it's not the "best" choice for stocking. The festivums, firemouths and acaras are not the world's most aggressive and they might not be good tankmates for most Africans. What is your tap water like in terms of pH, [acronym:3a704505fe="Carbonate Hardness"]KH[/acronym:3a704505fe] and [acronym:3a704505fe="General Hardness"]GH[/acronym:3a704505fe]?

[FishLover14]

I Have a [acronym:ba576b0e07="power head or Measure of the concentration of hydrogen ions, depending on context"]ph[/acronym:ba576b0e07] of perfect 7.5 and very hard water.

Thanks for the welcome.

dAN

P.S. I have heard it is really hard to do it from some other people recently, because of different aggresiion levels.

[poppab02]

The problem with mixing African and American cichlids is that it's really tough on the fish. It's hard on them.

I would really recommend going for the African tank. A 55 gallon African tank would be a great addition. It's a great size for a mbuna species tank and large enough that you can keep quite a few of them together and really exhibit some great behavior without all of the problems of smaller tanks.

[Menagerie]

With that pH and hardness, go for Lake Tang or Lake Malawi cichlids. Do not mix these types. It is best to stick with fish from one region. In my gallery, you can see my Mbuna cichlid tank (there is a blue acara from an impulse buy my husband made years ago; however, the acara has had some very close calls with the other fish).

[FishLover14]

I will probably go with the lake malawi or tangynia have to decide which ones i like better. Any more comments. Dan

[Menagerie]

These will help:
http://www.mongabay.com/fish/species_index
http://www.cichlidrecipe.com/cichlidrecipe/