sure its been done, but it isnt going to be recommended by anyone mostly becuz africans and americans have different ideal conditions for the most part(except for the few CA cichlids that like the high pH like the africans of course)
But neither would work, the frontosa would be to big and aggressive and the lab, well there just isn't any room left in it really.
i have to say i disagree with the aggression part, i have found frontosa to be very peaceful as compared to most cichlids, but i also must agree they just get so big they are hard to house with other fish, frontosa get a bad name for being aggressive because they are piscivores (live food eaters) and have a very large mouth to support this, if u put them with fish of a non-eatable size, u will most likely find they will be fairly peaceful.
oh ya, frontosa arent from lake Malawi, they are from Lake Tanganyika
I'm not good on malawi's so I couldn't think of many which might be able to mix, so I thought of another african cichlid, frontosa, as an example.
I have real hard water (around 8 pH), and I know of others who do too, this has had no affect on any of the new worlds I have had (they're thriving in it), not even a noticable affect on my discus, neither on any of my other fish.Unless everyone uses RO I doubt they have optimun conditions for their fish.So they are very adaptable and that is why they
can be mixed with africans, I've never done it, but I have seen it done.
There is a guy who breeds and sells malawi cichlids near to me and he had a tank mixed with convicts and labs, yes sounds like a disaster doesn't it?He had been running it for years, and although overstocked (a method commonly used on malawi's, as you probably know) the fish all looked healthy with little aggression between them.
It may be that african's find it harder to adapt to lower pH but most new worlds find it easier to adapt either way.
I have never had A frontosa but from reading about them they would not fair to well in a 30gal with a blue acara or firemouth.Both are small and the blue acara in particular has little aggression, so for a frontosa to decide he wants them out of his territory its not going to end up good in a 30 gal, even if it has little aggression, its still bigger lol.
You can mix them, but like my first poster says it is not recommended for a few reasons.
1. Both types have different water perferences. African Ciclids like hard Alkraine( however it is spelled) waters (meaning they like salt and plenty of it). New World Ciclids like oscars, pikes, and such like softer waters (little to no salt).
2. Commuication & behavior differences: Both ciclids from theses orders understand language from fish of their own regions. African Ciclids better understand each other if they came from most of the same places. If you mix these guys up with New world ciclids the understanding of language can be confusing to each order and that is how fights break out.
You can mix fish from both orders together that can tolerate the same conditions with problems. Mix peaceful fish together so less problems will surface, but that doesn't always mean anything coz you can have peaceful fish fighting all the time, it happens.
1.Your wrong, although they need a stable pH, with a high kH and gH stabability.Whats this obsession about salt?!lol
2. I see what you mean, thats why I only know of a few africans which mix with new worlds, they don't naturally mix together.
However search for a topic called 'I've found heaven on earth'.Chuka discovered a hot spring? in which he has spotted many different types of fish from co-existing.
