Jewel cichlids and mbuna

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Mikebaker

Aquarium Advice Activist
Joined
Nov 25, 2005
Messages
101
Location
pei, canada
hey all, i have just setup a 77 gallon mbuna tank in my living room. For filtration i am running two fluval 404 cannisters. The tank has plenty of hiding places, and lots of open swimming areas. Right now i have some 6 kenyis, 3 yellow labs, and 3 cobalts. I am going to add 3 more cobalts and 3 more cobalts. Would a group of 6 jewels be compatible. Any advice would be appreciated.
 
AFAIK, no. Africans get darker when they want to establish dominance and they blanch when stressed/submitting/cowering. New world cichlids do the opposite. eg: first fish to change color gets shredded doe to the crossed visual cues.
 
Mikebaker said:
i was under the impression that jewels were african.... you learn something new every day...
they are

jewel however (like kribs) are are from West Africa and are not Rift Lake Cichlids...
AFAIK they can not be kept with mbuna are they are not aggressive enough (but i may be wrong).
 
okay, therin is where my confusion lies. so with jewels and kribs not being from the rift lakes, do they still thrive in the same hard, high ph water as the rift lake species? is there lack of aggression the only thing which makes them not compatible with mbuna?
 
I have two jewls with my ciclids and they do fine never any kind of fighting maybe it's just me but all my fish get along well
 
Jewels do get large enough (5"-6") and are certainly tough enough...I know a few people that have kept the two types together successfully.
 
Well, I guess "AFAIK" wasn't worth too much on this one :oops:

A cautious "go for it" sounds like it's in order.
 
awesome... i really wanted something that would add some red to the tank... does anyone have any other suggestions (nothing too rare)
 
Mikebaker said:
awesome... i really wanted something that would add some red to the tank... does anyone have any other suggestions (nothing too rare)
suggestions of mbuna? well you have red...so

Yellow = Yellow Labs: Labidochromis caeruleus
Blue = Cobalt Blues: Maylandia callainos
White = Snow White Socolofi: Pseudotropheus socolofi "Albino"
 
I would suggest not mixing the two.

There are several African rift lake species that'll supply the red coloration you're looking for.
 
Imho you can mix the two. I have done many of times with no problems. The only time you will have trouble is if you get a spawning pair of jewels. The jewels will shred any african that comes to close to their spawning site.
 
FWIW, my african cichlid tank is

albino socofoli, venustus, demosoni and red jewels. also a trio of clown loaches and 5 giant danios for dither.

works fine. no more aggression than you would expect in a cichlid tank
 
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