Old World/New World Mix Can it be Done Successfully

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Albino Sick Led

Aquarium Advice Regular
Joined
Mar 8, 2013
Messages
89
Location
Houston,Texas
Demasoni Cichlid
Red jewel Cichlid
Duboisi Cichlid
Hap Livingstoni Cichlid
Peacock Cichlid
Auratus Cichlid
Jahoni cochlid
Kyoga Flameback
Haplochromis obliquedens Victoria Cichlid
Cobalt zebra Cichlid( your color preference)


Any if these would work. I have them all together just fine, in a 55 gallon long tank, with live plants
 

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Demasoni Cichlid
Red jewel Cichlid
Duboisi Cichlid
Hap Livingstoni Cichlid
Peacock Cichlid
Auratus Cichlid
Jahoni cochlid
Kyoga Flameback
Haplochromis obliquedens Victoria Cichlid
Cobalt zebra Cichlid( your color preference)


Any if these would work. I have them all together just fine, in a 55 gallon long tank, with live plants

I will have to get in touch with my lfs is it better getting all fish at once or the least aggressive species first and work my way up to the most aggressive ones last
 
I will have to get in touch with my lfs is it better getting all fish at once or the least aggressive species first and work my way up to the most aggressive ones last

I started out all them with about 10 of them and increased to all I have within 3 months. There are more in the tank which I didn't mention as well
This is the full list:


Hap livingstoni
Black convict Cichlid
Afra Cichlid
Duboisi Cichlid
African jewel
Auratus Cichlid
Acei Cichlid
Bumblebee Cichlid
Demasoni Cichlid
Blue cobalt zebra Cichlid
Red Zebra
Parrot Cichlid
Electric yellow Cichlid
Snow White albino
Haplochromis obliqudens
Haplochromis kyoga flame back
Frontosa Cichlid
Dinosaur Bichir
 
I started out all them with about 10 of them and increased to all I have within 3 months. There are more in the tank which I didn't mention as well
This is the full list:

Hap livingstoni
Black convict Cichlid
Afra Cichlid
Duboisi Cichlid
African jewel
Auratus Cichlid
Acei Cichlid
Bumblebee Cichlid
Demasoni Cichlid
Blue cobalt zebra Cichlid
Red Zebra
Parrot Cichlid
Electric yellow Cichlid
Snow White albino
Haplochromis obliqudens
Haplochromis kyoga flame back
Frontosa Cichlid
Dinosaur Bichir

That list won't work in a 55 long term. Some of these shouldn't even be together.
 
That list won't work in a 55 long term. Some of these shouldn't even be together.

1 1/2 years ago I was told something similar by the local fish store I bought them from. They claimed I would not see last 6 months with these fish together. While I do think that size will be the reason why I cannot keep them all together, I would respectfully disagree these fish cannot coexist together. Many believe that aggression or behavior is the main reason why certain cichlids do not behave well together. With a degree in biology and my passionate interest in aquatic ecosystems I know that with proper living space, food, and aquarium maintenance, these fish will survive and thrive if the environment allows it. Having live plants allows for them to personalize their own space, reducing the territory aggression, while at the same time creating natural barriers to discourage aggression. The plants aid tremendously in biological filtration in the tank as well as giving it a natural look and providing food. I feed them live food (ghost shrimp, feeder fish, earth worms, raw steak, raw chicken, food pellets, sea weed, and sometimes mosquito larvae) which helps and focuses their natural aggression on something else. The only problem I ever had was placing my blue crayfish in the tank because when it molted, the Bichir an cichlids ate it. This was put in the very first time I out all the fish together. Other than that not a single problem with aggression have I ever had, and no problems with growing and maintaining live plants as you can see in the photos, some of the plants being African plants as well.

While I don't encourage others to simply put any species of fish together it is definitely possible to create a natural ecosystem in which different species will coexist. The advantage and beauty is that I can and do bring species not naturally found together into one ecosystem and have the opportunity to see them exhibit their natural behavior in one ecosystem. Cichlids are one of the most advanced and fastest adapting animals in the world, simply placing species together that do not naturally find themselves together in nature does not mean they can not coexist. If their needs are met and an adequate environment is provided they can and do thrive together. This has been my experience anyways, I'm sure there are many different takes and other experiences out there that would contradict this and say otherwise. Thankfully I have had a very positive outcome so far and some of these guys are already into their 6-10 inch ranges.
 
You claim that size is an important factor yet you have a frontosa in a 4ft 55 gallon. This just one example of your bad advice. When all your fish are full grown, no doubt you will have issues in that setup.
 
Also your feeding routine is not good for fish at all. Just a heads up. It is going to cause poor health eventually in all your fish. I would suggest making a thread to get better information on Cichlid nutrition
 
You claim that size is an important factor yet you have a frontosa in a 4ft 55 gallon. This just one example of your bad advice. When all your fish are full grown, no doubt you will have issues in that setup.


As I stated in the beginning of my response.
"While size will be the reason I cannot keep these fish together....."
I am not arguing the point that the size of the fish and environment they live in does not matter. I'm arguing that having different species not naturally found together will not work.
 
Also your feeding routine is not good for fish at all. Just a heads up. It is going to cause poor health eventually in all your fish. I would suggest making a thread to get better information on Cichlid nutrition

I stated what my aquarium's diet consist of, I did not say my routine consists of feeding them all these things at once. I am aware of what species of fish I have and what their preferred diet is. I'm obviously not feeding raw steak directly to my Tropheus duboisi, for example, because excessive protein enzymes in their digestive tracts causes bloating and may hurt them.

I don't know if you read my responses thoroughly or just skimmed through them. I have maintained my aquarium for almost two years now without a single problem. I have even sold fry from my cichlids when they mated once, I have now gotten rid if the male and gave him to my LFS.
Again I'm not encouraging anyone else to go and combine different species together and see what happens. I have a biology background, and experience aquascaping. I combined my interest in both and set up this aquarium. It is people like you that state my setup will never work why I have such pride and display my success on forums, to show that IT IS possible to do it and to do it well, while providing a top notch natural ecosystem for my fish.
 
How do you stop you fish from eating raw steak and chicken is my question. You have a nice tank but like what was said it won't last in the long run like the parrot fish if I'm not mistaken you have will get picked off, the mix is def different. And I didn't see any fish in the pics at 10'
 
Feeding mammal proteins is not good for fish, they aren't built to digest non-aquatic organisms. Also feeding live has many problems of its own. Unless you are Raising your feeders yourself, they have very poor nutritional value and a high likely hood to transfer disease and parasites. The fact that you have a biology background means nothing when you make poor choices for your animals. People like you, that have a setup like yours come on this forum all the time. Then their fish grow kill each other or die off you never hear from them again. I am simply trying to help your setup work. You should feed a good quality pellet exclusively to your fish. Most on here use new life spectrum. Second I would start working on the bigger tank or plan on rehoming your haps. Lastly the blood parrot will eventually get beat on, so I would reccomend rehoming him and sticking strictly to the old world cichlids.
 
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How do you stop you fish from eating raw steak and chicken is my question. You have a nice tank but like what was said it won't last in the long run like the parrot fish if I'm not mistaken you have will get picked off, the mix is def different. And I didn't see any fish in the pics at 10'



I hand feed them the food when it comes to the steak and chicken. Other than that I place it in the tank and they eat it. The Hap Livingstoni is the biggest one, more along 8in", followed second by the parrot being around 6.5-7" now. As far as the parrot fish, he was given to me, and I know he will go once he starts getting bigger in the near future.

Thank you for commenting!
 
Cichlids are one of the worlds most diverse eaters actually.

Feeding mammal proteins is not good for fish, they aren't built to digest non-aquatic organisms. Also feeding live has many problems of its own. Unless you are Raising your feeders yourself, they have very poor nutritional value and a high likely hood to transfer disease and parasites. The fact that you have a biology background means nothing when you make poor choices for your animals. People like you, that have a setup like yours come on this forum all the time. Then their fish grow kill each other or die off you never hear from them again. I am simply trying to help your setup work. You should feed a good quality pellet exclusively to your fish. Most on here use new life spectrum. Second I would start working on the bigger tank or plan on rehoming your haps. Lastly the blood parrot will eventually get beat on, so I would reccomend rehoming him and sticking strictly to the old world cichlids.


TheCommnunityCichlid, It seems your responses are right along with other people that have opinionated and gave feedback to my tank setup before, which were incorrect, in my opinion. I firmly believe that doing something and arguing it calls for a logical explanation and reasoning.So i will briefly try and summarize why what i do works.

1. Tropomysosin and Actin (Polymer proteins found in almost all major muscle tissues in animal). In these proteins there is an amino acid called Histadine. The "Bloating" you are referring to occurs if there is a reaction to this type of protein when when antibodies react and release Histamine. A cichlid will "bloat" if the histidine can not be digested, causing an inflammatory response in the body and they react to the Histamine in their body being released. Histadine receptors are found in cichlids, there is proof that they contain a neurogenic histaminergic system, meaning that their bodies do produce enzymes capable of breaking down these proteins(food).

2. Cichlids do have the capability to have a very diverse diet, including meat. One of the key descriptions of a cichlid is that they have the fusion of the lower pharyngeal bones into a single tooth-bearing structure. Their complex set of muscles allows their upper and lower pharyngeal bones to be used as a second set of jaws for processing food, allowing a division of labor between the "true jaws" (mandibles) and the "pharyngeal jaws". A carnivorous diet is definitely something they are capable of surviving on.

3. My live feed comes from a very reputable fish store. They have their very well maintained live feed tanks and rarely have problems with bacterial outbreaks. This is because they do breed the live feeders themselves.


If you feel so inclined that my setup is not working and will fail, please post a link or send me in the direction of where these "people" you are talking about that have a similar fundamental and biological approach to their setups have failed. Many of the responses you are giving me are responses found in many forums that mainly come from bad personal experiences others have had, but this does not mean that this is how all fish are and act. There has to be critical thinking and logic behind what you're saying or believe, not just forum-generated typical responses. There is a lot of information many people don't have and apply when doing what they do and that is what may cause something to go wrong. I am not blindly doing something to see what reaction i am going to obtain, whatever it may be. I do appreciate the feedback. I think we will agrees to disagree with how we manage our aquatic ecosystems. If you have any questions regarding how i do what i do please feel free to ask. Thank you for reading and your feedback as well. I always appreciate any information and feedback i can get. :)
 
Dude why aren't you listening to people? If everybody agrees that your mix of fish is wrong and your food is wrong, why not listen to them? They're just trying to look out for your fish.
 
Photo depiction of the jaw description i gave

This photo can show the basic structure of what i mentioned in the jaw anatomy of cichlids.
 

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Editing responses?

you edited your comment from :


Well clearly you aren't doing anything wrong and everybody telling you that you have your tank set up wrong with the wrong food and wrong mix of fish is wrong. Nobody else in this thread knows what they are talking about (y) .


and went on to say now:

Dude why aren't you listening to people? If everybody agrees that your mix of fish is wrong and your food is wrong, why not listen to them? They're just trying to look out for your fish.



Your response is a bit confusing and i don't know if I understand what you're trying to say. I've explained my reasoning to why i have my set up the way i do. Thank you for the feedback!....(y)
 
Hand feed really, none of your fish you have need to be eating steak or chicken not even the predator haps. You would be good if you got rid of the too big haps, and the new worlds and stick with the mbuna and smaller haps beacuse like I said you have a nice tank bad mix. O and the frontosa
 
Hand feed really, none of your fish you have need to be eating steak or chicken not even the predator haps. You would be good if you got rid of the too big haps, and the new worlds and stick with the mbuna and smaller haps beacuse like I said you have a nice tank bad mix. O and the frontosa


Eventually i will have to get rid of some of the tankmates when they grow into their size, as i stated before. I know this already. I knew the frontosa would definitely have to go because i could do the frontosy by itself in a 55 gal long and even then i would consider doing it bigger.This set up is not premanent, and the tankmates will not be permanent either. I am just wanting to share my succesful experience thus far of my planted cichlid tank and i am giving information as to what their diet consists of. My fish are very healthy and have never had any issues with parasites, infections, or bloating.
:fish2:
 
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