Julidochromis Regani In With Mbuna's

[Tiger Tiger]

I have one small regani being passed onto me as the guy is packing up. At present i only have one Mbuna tank. Will he be OK in there if not i will have to find a home for him. He is only about 2 inches long.
Good looking fish

 

[Pleccy]

I don't normally recommend mixing tangs with malawis but if time is short he should be OK for a short while, however if you have a spare tank lying around I would set this up for him.

 

[Ferris]

Julidochromis are a relatively peaceful genus by African cichlid standards. I certainly wouldn't recommend putting one in an Mbuna tank, even short term unless your Mbuna are juveniles and much smaller than the Regani. Regani in particluar are not good at competing for food and can easily starve when kept with Mbuna.

 

[kj23502]

When I started asking about mixing Lake Tang w/Lake Malawai awhile ago I received a resounding "No" from multiple sources and forums. I'd say no to short term too. Besides the aggression issue, how'd you catch him again? You'd have to remove rock it'd get a little crazy taking it out so he can't hide it. Not to mention stressful for your current fish. Why don't you have your friend sell or donate it to a LFS if they can't rehome it themselves?

 

[Tiger Tiger]

Perhaps the two are making up my mind as i have a 90 gallon tank coming and keep changing my mind on whether to have Tango or milawi.
I was also given a Altolamprologus compressiceps with it of similar size and a brichardi.They are being held in my 35 gallon breeding tank . I intend to get a few more Brichardi in that tank to breed so perhaps the the two donated are asking me for a home.

I have a problem and that is i have a mbuna tank with Afra's and Yellow Labs in 5 of each and a rusty in my 55 gallon so that's my milawi tank.

So with a 90 gallon coming it should be tango's but i am struggling to find fish i like as the colours seem to be more bland .

But having said that perhaps building some fish around the Altolamprologus compressiceps and the julia is the way to go. I would like to try some shellies. I am also a bit tired of Sand so am looking for a different substrate and maybe just a few plants.

Perhaps a few suggestions from you guys. It's not easy starting out with cichlids to put with what with the selections. The cookie is useful but not always what you want and looking in books again is useful but usually never tells you what they are compatible with . Again the amount of numbers of the fish would be useful if perhaps only 1 of a single species.

The cookies are very useful and i thank the forum for them .

So any ideas to build up around these two. I do love the Altolamprologus compressiceps i think they are suberb and perhaps a few with different colourations would be great but not essential

i look forward to any suggestions

ATVB

Dave.

PS....I loved those video's...What a great idea

 

[Rick A]

Devil's advocate here... I've had a Julidochromis in my Malawi tank for nearly three years now and it has had no problems at all. It keeps out of their way, and as it doesn't look remotely like the others, they don't bother it either. Your call really...

Also, I have recently added a compressiceps and he sits still in mid water while the Malawis fight and chase around him . He is totally un-fazzed by it all and will stand his ground with all of the others. He is only 1.5" long and a good number of my Malawis are around 5" to 6". I'm really impressed with him. Also worth considering that many people will go on about different water param' requirements, but most fish you buy are captive bred and live quite happily together - both Malawis and Tang's like quite a high PH a nd its not worth splitting hairs over .5 of a PH level.

 

[kj23502]

FYI: Julies are classified as omnivores. You could try it. It's just highly advised against by a lot of people.