Mixing african cichlids with community fish

[robertmarda]

Does anyone have any experience with mixing african cichlids with community fish? I have a friend right now that has 4 african cichlids with 3 tiger barbs and 2 platies. He says they are getting along fine.

I have a 55 gallon tank with a number of community fish and a 6 inch convict cichlid and a 1 and a half inch firemouth. I think the african cichlids are about 2 inches long right now and my friend believes they will grow to 5 to 6 inches long. I believe the fish would be fine in my tank right now, however I have seen african cichlids be aggressive with other aggressive fish and win, so my concern is that when they are full grown that they would cause problems for my other fish. What do you think?

[loganj]

The biggest trouble I can see with this is the different water requirements of the fish. Tiger barbs prefer soft, acidic water. Platys prefer slightly harder water with a pH around 7.5. Both of them can live happily in 7.0 though. African Cichlids, however, do best in very hard water with a pH of about 8.2. Even 9.0 if they are Tanganyikans. This would be the reason I wouldn't do it.
Logan J

[michealprater]

I have put community fish in tanks with ciclids. My tank has ciclids in it now, no community fish, you get the point right. Ciclids in my opinion (especially the auratis) are pound for pound the meanest fish in the world. A unnamed person i know had a auratis that would kill anything it came in contact with. He got so frustrated with this fish he decided to execute it in a saltwater tank. He threw it in a saltwater tank with a picasso trigger. The auratis nearly killed the trigger before his gills shut down and he died. That is why I love ciclids thought, they are the billy bad a**es of the fish world.

[robertmarda]

I had forgotten about the requirement of many cichlids of 8.2 or higher Ph. I also have seen how aggressive african cichlids can be and they pick on fish larger than themselves and win.

I will refrain from adding them to my tank.

For the record my convict cichlid and firemouth are still behaving themselves and I recently purchased a rainbow cichlid who is also well integrated with my other community fish. I keep a watchful eye for aggressive behavior. The few times I've seen problems I simply removed the fish being attacked and then everything is fine. Twice, I've been able to return the fish that was attacked by a cichlid and now the cichlids leave the fish alone and everything is peaceful again.