Chichlids and tiger barbs. And rainbow shark

[Ryan231211]

Hello.. i have got 6 tiger barbs.. a pleck... ind i am reall really wanting to get a couple of african chichlids to go in the tank... is this possible.. I've seen a lot of people so no you can't do that.. and I've also just seen threads where people have done it and posted videos and that they all get along fine.. what's people's advice please

 

[Cichlid4life]

African cichlids are not to be put with any fish other than other African cichlids and sometimes a few synodontis catfish or plecos, but never do small fish, especially tetras and barbs. Also, what kind of pleco is it that you mentioned and what kind of African cichlids are you planning to out in the tank?

 

[Cichlid4life]

Hello.. i have got 6 tiger barbs.. a pleck... ind i am reall really wanting to get a couple of african chichlids to go in the tank... is this possible.. I've seen a lot of people so no you can't do that.. and I've also just seen threads where people have done it and posted videos and that they all get along fine.. what's people's advice please

The only cichlids that get close to even being just fine with barbs are South American dwarf cichlids.

 

[Ryan231211]

Thank you for the advice... my pleck is calledled a flash pleco I think... and I'm not exactly sure what they are I'll have to check next time I'm in pet shop

 

[Cichlid4life]

does it resemble the clown pleco just a little? A true flash pleco is not the best kind of pleco to put with African cichlids, do you know what kinds of African cichlids you were wanting to add to the tank?

 

[Colin_T]

African cichlids can require hard water with a pH above 7.6 if they come from the Rift Lakes (Lake Malawi, Lake Tanganyika & Lake Victoria); or they can require soft water with a pH between 6 & 7.4 if they come from the rivers like around the Congo Basin.

The soft water species will be fine with tiger barbs but as mentioned by Cichlid4life, the Rift Lake cichlids should only be kept with their own kind due to the water requirements and territorial behaviour. If the tank is big enough and you have some of the peaceful species of Rift Lake cichlid you can keep rainbowfish with them, but you only want to do that with the peaceful species of cichlid.

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As for Tiger Barbs, they are renown fin nippers that should not be kept in tanks with slow moving fish or fish with long fins, and you need to keep the Tiber Barbs in groups of 10 or more.

Ruby Barbs (Puntius nigrofasciata) looks similar to a Tiger Barb but are much less likely to nip fins and the males change colour during the breeding season.

 

[Cichlid4life]

African cichlids can require hard water with a pH above 7.6 if they come from the Rift Lakes (Lake Malawi, Lake Tanganyika & Lake Victoria); or they can require soft water with a pH between 6 & 7.4 if they come from the rivers like around the Congo Basin.

The soft water species will be fine with tiger barbs but as mentioned by Cichlid4life, the Rift Lake cichlids should only be kept with their own kind due to the water requirements and territorial behaviour. If the tank is big enough and you have some of the peaceful species of Rift Lake cichlid you can keep rainbowfish with them, but you only want to do that with the peaceful species of cichlid.

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As for Tiger Barbs, they are renown fin nippers that should not be kept in tanks with slow moving fish or fish with long fins, and you need to keep the Tiber Barbs in groups of 10 or more.

Ruby Barbs (Puntius nigrofasciata) looks similar to a Tiger Barb but are much less likely to nip fins and the males change colour during the breeding season.

Those peaceful species you are talking about most likely would be from lake Malawi, Labeotropheus Fuelleborni females are one of the most peaceful Malawi cichlids and they are algae grazers, and Lake Malawi has the closest water comparison to what the tiger barbs have in the wild. But even then i would not do it, as an adult fuelleborni female can kill a tiger barb in one bite if that particular tiger barb has been really annoyingly biting her fins. Also, African cichlids use colors and sizing up to warn and to show dominance over other cichlids, while the barbs use biting and chasing as the main strategy. The African cichlid might be a male who thinks that the tiger barb may be a male cichlid trying to dominate over the cichlid, then the cichlid will most likely try to engage in a lock mouth, which would end in death of the tiger barb as the cichlids would break the barbs' jaw bone and it's mouth, maybe the lock mouth might end up eating the barb because the barb is the size of a button on a shirt and the cichlid is the size of a computer mouse. Although tiger barbs have never been put with Malawi cichlids, the above results may or may not be true, but if anything about cichlids is true, it is that cichlids are unpredictable and they are completely different form cichlid to cichlid.

 

[Ryan231211]

Right thank you very much for all that info... I shall not be getting them now.. I think I will stick with more compatible fish... thank you all very much for your help

 

[Cichlid4life]

Right thank you very much for all that info... I shall not be getting them now.. I think I will stick with more compatible fish... thank you all very much for your help

i just basically told you many ways that African cichlids may kill the tiger barbs because they are unpredictable and because they don't understand each other, but dwarf South American cichlids like smiling acaras (also know as dwarf flag cichlids) and keyholes, but not so much apistogramas.

 

[Colin_T]

i just basically told you many ways that African cichlids may kill the tiger barbs because they are unpredictable and because they don't understand each other,

What's that about?
He isn't getting Africans.

 

[Cichlid4life]

i just said that as to saay that i summed up the previous message just incase they thought the first message was talking about what happens with tiger barbs and Africans, when it is only the likely outcome.

 

[Colin_T]

ok, gotcha