catfish

[jman]

what catfish is good w/ these fish (what small catfish)
how many?

[Fishguy2727]

With what fish?

[jeffs99dime]

are you talking about the fish in your avatar?

[Fishguy2727]

If you are talking about just Malawi Cichlids in general, it will vary but in general the only one that is readily available that would be appropriate for the biotope would be Synodontis spp., although I'm not sure which species would be in the Malawi biotope.

[Hevydevy]

I've just added a Synodontis Eupterus to my tank.

It's now living with two electric yellow cichlids, an electric blue, a dolphin cichlid, a red jewell cichlid and a ruby shark.

He actually keeps to himself pretty much but when he is swimming near the other fish they seem to get on fine.

However, the dude at the aquarium told me to get one only to avoid problems between the two catfish and to provide some hiding places.

I've got a nice rock with some holes as well as a log thingy and he spends most of his time in there.

how big is your tank?

[Fishguy2727]

I'm assuming you are wanting to do mbunas. The dolphin should not be with mbunas. The shark and jewel cichlid are not even malawi cichlids so both of those need to go. What species exactly is the electric blue? Depending on what species it is it may or may not be appropriate for your tank. How big is your tank?

[Hevydevy]

I've been told otherwise. The dude at the fish shop warned me off a few varieties that can be particularly aggressive.

Also, the reserach I've done on each of my fish suggests there is no reason why the ones I have shouldn't get along with one another.

Seem fine at the moment anyway.

The dolphin and the electric blue hang out together while the red jewell plays with the yellows.

Even the shark and the yellows play chase every now and then.

[Fishguy2727]

Many fish, especially cichlids, will dramatically change temperment as they mature. So even though they aren't aggressive to eachother now, doe snot mean it is a good idea. Yellow labs ar embunas and one of the sites I checked this morning said specifically that dolphns should not be with mbunas.

One aspect that needs to be kept in mind is water parameters. Cichlids form the rift lakes need to be kept in water liek their lake. That means you can;t mix lakes and you can't mix them with other types of fish. Jewels are nto from the rift lakes. The chemistry of the lakes is unique in the world, so the pH, hardness, salinity, etc. are different form all other bodies of water. For fish to truly thrive (not just do 'fine' or 'good so far' or 'good enough') you need to simulate their natural water parameters as precisely as possible. These animals did not choose us, we chose them. We have an obligation to do the best we reasonably can, and mixing fish from different water parameters and temperments is not doing that.

Even more is that there are basically three setups you can do with Lake Malawi cichlids. These are mbunas, peacocks, and utakas. They cannot be mixed because of temperment and diet.

Many fish are very hardy. Unfortunately this can be equated to them 'doing great' in conditions that are not ideal. It is not fair to the animals to be kept in conditions that are not ideal for them. The goal in fishkeeping should always be to thrive. Please re-research (possibly with better sources, I will gladly help you with that) as well as reconsider your setup. And it sounds like you may want to take that LFS employee's recommendations with restrained doubt and double check any info on your own.

[jman]

sorry for taking so long to respond but the computer was down...
anyway i do believe that the catfish you have is fine to fit in my tank. Although i have done some research on my own jewels along with some huge dolphins and others i ended up keeping them away. thanks

[switchboard]

i have 3 cichlids and i have a Lace catfish and a polakdot picus catfish in the tank to help clean the botton. I was told as long and they have a strong skin the cichlids would not harm it that much. I have also noticed with my friends cichlids are more aggressive than mine.