African Crossbreeding Fears

[Sicklid]

So, I wanna try my first African Tank. I was wondering if Yellow Labidochromis would try to crossbreed with Pseudotropheus, like Saulosi or Soccolofi.

 

[DeFeKt]

Anything is possible

 

[Menagerie]

I believe they are close enough. The fact is most ARL cichlids are not evolutionarily far enough apart to prevent crossbreds. I keep an 80 gal of mixed Mbuna--no pairs-- and one fish or another is often holding Helps me figure out who's female, but I never remove them or the fry. Once or twice a year I will see a tiny fish hiding in the rocks, but they never make it to adulthood. If you are keeping cichlids just to keep them, and then let nature take its course and the other fish in the tank will keep the crossbreed population down.

 

[jkrumholz]

From my experience, unless you're TRYING to raise fry, you generally lose most of them very quickly. But cross breeding is basically unavoidable in a community style cichlid tank. If you really don't want fry, put a Venustus in there. They LOVE to eat babies....

 

[toddnbecka]

Crossbreeding is much more likely if you don't have m/f off each species in a tank. Given proper stocking, 1m/several f of each, it's much less likely.

 

[Sicklid]

Thanks guys. I have now decided after filling my tank today and discovering that she only holds forty gallons on the nose (I have a DIY background on another thread and this takes up 15 of my 55 gal., more importantly swimming/territory space) that I will be going with smaller species of Tanganyika cichlids instead of Malawi... I will save them for my 125. I am going to do more research on lake Tang., but anyone who would like to chime in with favorite stocking lists be my guest. Keeping w/ the thread, will there be the same risk of crossbreeding with the other rift lake cichlids? I have zero experience with either one, and am looking at Julies, Lampros., Neolampros., etc.

 

[toddnbecka]

Crossbreeding of Tang's is possible, but mainly among different species of the same genus. (Don't mix 2 types of Julies, etc. in the same tank) There have been a few cases of Julies crossbreeding with Lamprologus leleupi's as well.
Unless you want a species tank, stay away from the Neolamprologus brichardi complex. There are numerous species, closely related, but all have one thing in common. When they spawn, the older fry help protect the younger ones. Eventually, they will take over the whole tank, first crowding the other fish into the corners, then eventually killing them, either from aggression or just plain stress.
Otherwise, the featherfins, (Ophthalmotilapia and Cyathopharynx species) Tropheus, Frontosa, and "jumbo" Cyprichromis species come to mind as needing a larger tank then a 55.

 

[Sicklid]

Thanks for all the heads up, because my own head is swimming (no pun intended) from all the info on cichlids on the web. I have gone from intending for this tank to hold mbuna, then a single EB Jack Dempsey, then mbuna and now L.Tang. cichlids. I am still thinking about mbuna tho.