Tank mate suggestions

[odin909]

Hey
I got a 30 gal tank . Right now i have 3 red eye tetras , 1 maleri and 1 yellow lab. Should i just stick with the 2 africans and add corys and more tetras ? Or could i add another cichlid. Not sure what kind, any suggestions would be great.

[mac]

Hey there,

What are your water paramaters?
Ie Ph Kh gh nititrite nitrate ammonia.

Is the tank cycled??
Do you have any rock work that is required for the rift lakes cichlids?

The combination listed thus far is highly incompatible, to the point fish will either get killed out right or harrased no, mixed with possible water paramiters not ebony right to suit the different species.

The next side of it is the water requirments for the fish listed are at two different sides of the spectrums.

Tetras prefer more acid water. While right make cichlids need very akaline water to suit the mineral content that they need.

Best option would be to either choose between cichlids from the rift lakes, or go with none rift lake cichlids. Tanganykia is the Better choice if you do decide to skip tetras and do a tanganykia set up.

Or scrap that idea and go for tetras, corys and no African cichlids, and possibly do some type of south American dwarf cichlid.

I would highky recommend doing some reading on line about rift lake species and or ask around on here to get a good under standing of how to keep these wonderful fish in a perfect situation.

Mac

[TexChuck]

Great advice from mac. I have no experience with African cichlids, but if you decide to go with his second option, I have a dwarf Ram colormorph (Electric Blue Ram) from South America that's been doing great with tetras. 29gal tank. Corys are doing great in that tank as well.

[angelcraze2]

If you can post the pH level of your tank, we could help you decide which types of fish to go with. The fish listed above are absolutely not compatible together!

[odin909]

Was just looking for fish ideas . Ive been keeping fish for 30 years and tetras will do fine with africans ! Ph is 7 . Remember africans and tetras are raised on fish farms with mostly neutral water conditions. They are not from africa or south america . IM shocked at how people think this stuff. Tetras can fill the top of the water , been doing it for long time. I know most will say no way, never , Have u tried it ?

[Rocksor]

Was just looking for fish ideas . Ive been keeping fish for 30 years and tetras will do fine with africans ! Ph is 7 . Remember africans and tetras are raised on fish farms with mostly neutral water conditions. They are not from africa or south america . IM shocked at how people think this stuff. Tetras can fill the top of the water , been doing it for long time. I know most will say no way, never , Have u tried it ?

Africans mostly raised in neutral conditions? That's news to me. I know quite a bit of fish farms from Florida have hard water with a ph above 7.0. We just had a member try African cichlids with neutral PH water, and the cichlids were pale and started to die off over the course of 3 weeks until he increased the hardness and PH of the water.

You can have neutral PH but still have hard water. I've seen soft water with a PH of 8.0 or above. Having the wrong hardness for the water will affect African cichlids from the lakes.

[odin909]

Died off in a matter of weeks because of neutral ph ?? Your a moderator u know better than that !! Sorry that is just not the cause the fish died from ! And yes raised in neutral ph , i and im sure alot have breed africans in neutral ph . Africans can adapt to water conditions better than most fish and if raised in neutral ph will do fine.

[Slaphppy7]

Let's keep things civil here, no need for drama or high emotion.

[Rocksor]

Died off in a matter of weeks because of neutral ph ?? Your a moderator u know better than that !! Sorry that is just not the cause the fish died from ! And yes raised in neutral ph , i and im sure alot have breed africans in neutral ph . Africans can adapt to water conditions better than most fish and if raised in neutral ph will do fine.

The PH and hardness were not right for the fish, and lower than they should be. With the TDS not being at the right level, it affected their osmotic regulation.

You can have neutral PH and have hard water, which means the TDS is at the right level for them to live. There is no correlation between PH and the hardness of the water. Neither parameter affects one another. You've only pointed out neutral PH, and never stated what the TDS level and hardness level of the water is where your African cichlids survived.

[odin909]

Im done with this thread, thanx for the info. We are all entitled to our own ideas. Dont wanna start a fight with people.