quick answeres appreciated

[cocoa_pleco]

My car broke down, and im getting a ride with someone to petsmart for guinea pig food in a hour. Anyways, while im there, what tankmates would work with a krib in a 20g tank? Something small in size.

[jeffs99dime]

keyhole cichlids. quick enough for ya? lol

[cocoa_pleco]

keyhole cichlids. quick enough for ya? lol



"the speed of sound" lol. If they dont have any keyholes, and second or third choices?

[Glasstapper]

another dwarf cichlid would be fine. I've read that most of the apistogramma species are fairly hardy, like the cockatoo cichlid. Or the bolivian ram. That is, if your LFS regularly carries dwarf cichlids.

[jeffs99dime]

medium sized tetra too. don't do cardinals or neons. the krib will kill them by morning

[cocoa_pleco]

My petsmart has a fairly large cichlid area, so ill maybe go with another dwarf. What cichlids are those little dark orange and yellow guys?? I used to have a few of them

[cocoa_pleco]

Im goin in 15 min, so any last words???? lol

[jeffs99dime]

here's a few-- good luck

[cocoa_pleco]

good luck? thats a couple of words... lol

[jeffs99dime]

well, if you want to get all technical a "last" word in the post i just made would be "luck" but that wouldn't really make any sense. lol

[Abbeys_Mom]

Well, You have to tell us what you get!

[cocoa_pleco]

The staff were pretty useless, but I got a yellow cichlid with 2 black stripes on each side. It was in a tank labeled "assorted cichlids"- so helpful.
What kind is it? Its not a bumble bee, and it gets along pretty good with the krib. They just do the odd chase over territory and thats it. The fish can also dart pretty well, and is about 3-4 inches long.
and the fish is pretty peaceful. The krib dishes more anger over territory out than the unknown.

[cocoa_pleco]

found out what it is! its a Melanochromis chipokae or a M.auratus, and i guess the only way to tell which is which is the auratus and which is the chipokae is the auratus has a black outline in its lips, and mine half and half. I cant tell!!!

[blue fin]

cool... lets see a pic

[cocoa_pleco]

Here he is!

[jeffs99dime]

that's an african mbuna cichlid! what is your ph in your tank? what's your hardness? kribs don't live in the same water parameters as him. it's true that kribs inhabit africa, but they don't inhabit the same as M. Aurautus. you need malawi lake salt for the aurautus and the krib will not thrive in that living condition. my advice would be to bring m. aurautus back to the lfs.--jeff

[cocoa_pleco]

aw, crappers. well, i do have an empty tank, so off he goes to the other tank.
One thing i cant figure out is on all websites it says theyre coldblooded killers, and mine wouldnt hurt a brine shrimp. The krib defends his territory and the mbuna just darts away and doesnt dish nothin back, and is a real sissy.:confused:

[Severus]

As a rule of thumb it is not recommended to mix african and american cichlids. Live and learn. And as for you guys behavior... cichlids are all different, that is probably his personality.

[jeffs99dime]

As a rule of thumb it is not recommended to mix african and american cichlids. Live and learn. And as for you guys behavior... cichlids are all different, that is probably his personality.

the krib and auratus are both africans, but auratus is an mbuna which needs lake salt, high ph, high hardness and calcium.

[minabird]

The staff were pretty useless, but I got a yellow cichlid with 2 black stripes on each side. It was in a tank labeled "assorted cichlids"- so helpful.
What kind is it? Its not a bumble bee, and it gets along pretty good with the krib. They just do the odd chase over territory and thats it. The fish can also dart pretty well, and is about 3-4 inches long.
and the fish is pretty peaceful. The krib dishes more anger over territory out than the unknown.

The 2 chain pet stores near me also have tanks that just say "assorted african cichlids." I'd like to get a cichlid tank and want to do research before I start but can't tell what they have most of the time. Sometimes they'll break them out into either malawi or tanganyika (sp?). I was thinking that the "assorted" tank was for cichlids other than the malawis or tanganyikas, but am not too sure.

[cocoa_pleco]

and i asked if the one i wanted would get alond with the krib, and they said " well, dont get a oscar cause they get huge, but any cichlid the same size as the krib can go with him"

Soooooooooooooooo... Ill put a convict with a jack dempsy with the krib, and maybe throw in 5 angels... that'll work out????????
It doesnt work that way.

[Glasstapper]

that just goes to show the staff that was "helping" you was just trying to sell you a fish and was just going off the general "keep similar fish together". If they knew anything at all, they would know that not all cichlids can go together. In fact, it's a delicate art to have a community cichlid tank that requires research and trial and error.

[cocoa_pleco]

exactly. mixing species is extremely delicate

[henkychif]

I've had a few kribs and they were all pretty nasty, but I guess each fish is an individual. Sometimes two aggressive fish in the same tank will seem to be OK for the first few days or even weeks... until one day.