Mixed African tank - Malawi and Tanganyikan

[tony1928]

What do you guys think about tanks that are mixed? I know I've seen it done many times before successfully but just wondered what you guys think. I know the water parameters from the different lakes are different and also some fish are herbivores versus piscivores, etc... Just thinking that this might open up the opportunity to add more variety to my 400g, which is strictly malawi right now.

[Mferko]

imo its fine in your case since you dont have a buncha little mbuna terrors alrdy
calvus/compressiceps would be fine with your haps i'd think

[Rastapus]

Tony,
In our experience, most hobbyists mix the lakes. Especially larger species of Tanganyikans with Malawi. Choosing a hardness in between the two lakes works fine and there are very unique Tanganyikan sp. that add to any display. We just had a load of Tropheus Duboisi for example which work very well for algae control and are just as rowdy as many Malawi Cichlids. The smaller species such as shell dwellers will likely not fare well though.

[Vman]

I have a 46 gallon that isn't just a mix of african but south American as well.I have compressiceps,peacocks,convicts,tropheus duboisi,kehole,red empress,leleupei(possible spelling),zebra,frontosa,haps,and had a huge severum(which didn't make it more than a couple of months),possibly was not agressive enough.I have crushed coral for the substrate and use 1 teaspoon of aquarium salt per every 10 gallons.The fish are very happy and look great.Will post pix later.To anyone looking for beatiful Africans I recomend Albert,he is an African specialist and has beatiful fish.

[Krashy_Cichlids]

A mix from the different lakes is not a problem, just do a little research on the fish you want.

[Nanokid]

you can mix almost all the neolamprologus with Mbuna - I.e the leulupi, birchari, treticanthus etc. just not shellies, or sand dwellers, cyps julis might be Ok as long as they are bigger, catfish are OK too.

[tony1928]

Thanks for all the input everyone. When I first posted, I was like, man, I'm probably gonna get flamed in this thread, but everyone has been positive.

Yup, I'm doing my research and looking for some of the larger varieties like Frontosa, Calvus/Comps. I just want to make sure the fish will be happy in there.

The water is already being buffered so I will just adjust slightly to be somewhere in the middle of the two lakes. Thanks for all the input!!

[silvciv888]

you should be fine man. i dont think many of us have super hi ph. perhaps the most important thing would be ph stability.

[JUICE]

Thanks for all the input everyone. When I first posted, I was like, man, I'm probably gonna get flamed in this thread, but everyone has been positive.

Yup, I'm doing my research and looking for some of the larger varieties like Frontosa, Calvus/Comps. I just want to make sure the fish will be happy in there.

The water is already being buffered so I will just adjust slightly to be somewhere in the middle of the two lakes. Thanks for all the input!!

wow mixing lakes ?? eh ..lol

im just messing with ya , do what makes u happy and your fish happy !! cause ,most who would flame you on here are just noobs anyways !!

if anybodys knows african lake differances its you tony !! lol

[tony1928]

Haha, thanks for the kind comments Justin. I've never mixed fish myself but given my limited tank number, I really want a little more variety to stock the tank with. If there's no real harm to the fish, I'm going to go for it.