mixing of fish???

[Magnum Man53 167]

so, most of my tanks are a blend of fish each from their own continents, for example I rarely mix asian fish with south American, but I realize I’m not really a purist, as often there are vastly different regions, on the same continent, and the fish would never meet, in the wild… so very few of my tanks would actually qualify as a real biotope… however I’m sure many fish from different worlds can coexist in the same tank, if they don’t get in each others way… have any of you had good luck in mixing fish, this could be as simple as a beta and a pleco, or Oto, or a full community tank, full of fish from various continents???

 

[FattyFish]

I have a "global community aquarium".
I understand water parameters differ for different fish (e.g., guppies and tetras), but most common hobby fish are bred and are quite happy in a slightly different range than those in the wild.

Fish Type	Native Region & Habitat	Primary Countries of Origin
Guppies	South America & The Caribbean	Venezuela, Guyana, Brazil, Trinidad and Tobago
Tetras	South America & Central America (Note: A few species are from Africa)	Brazil, Peru, Colombia (Amazon River Basin)
Corydoras (Cory)	South America	Argentina, Brazil, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela
Plecos	South America & Central America	Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia, Guyana
Rasboras	Southeast Asia & South Asia	Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, India
Gouramis	Southeast Asia & South Asia	Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh

 

[davros1]

I want to say "don't use a blender" but I won't since you would all yell at me....

 

[Jennet32 90]

When I first got fish in the 70's the only thing I really knew was Angels did not mix well with smaller fish. I had 2 four foot bow front aquariums, so I stocked one with 5 angel fish, one of whom died in the first few months. And the other I stocked with a lot of other fish that I just liked. At that point in time I did not do a lot of research before I bought.

Therefore, in the second tank I kept (with few deaths) : guppies, neon tetras, gouramis, various barbs, paradise fish, from what I have been reading on here I think possibly a few rasboras and danios and one siamese fighting fish. I am sure there are a few more, but my memory nowadays is not nearly what it once was.

So as davros said - maybe I did use a blender but in my ignorance, I knew no better.

 

[GaryE13 11]

I never mix Cichlids, because as territorial fish, they need language (body and probably chemical language) and the continents tore apart long enough ago they don't 'speak' the same. Those miscommunications can really cause trouble, and degenerate into brute force sometimes.

For shoalers, I like to fantasize abut nature so I don't usually mix continents. I try not to mix habitats. It isn't always possible, especially when it comes to the choice of surface fish. I confess, some of my Xiphophorus milleri from Mexico hang around with African fish. And I am so bad with plants I keep what grows. I plant tanks, but Canadian/SA plants, or Asian ones are in with fish from all over.

 

[emeraldking32 83]

Well, when I grew up, my parents have always kept a mix of fish. No matter their origin. And frankly, all went well together. But I also have to mention that a number of those are not available on the market anymore. Overhere, my community tank in the livingroom has also got a mixture of Asian, Central American and South American species. Thusfar, they're still okay with another.

When it comes down to my breeding tanks, there are also a number of tanks that have 2-3 different species in them. But only combined when they all have similar needs in environment, food, behavior and water parameters.

 

[Rusty_Shackleford52 167]

I'm more of a purist, and my interests have been trending towards biotopes.
I agree with @GaryE concerning cichlids. When a Thorichthys species flares it gills as a threat display does as Psedoutropheus species recognize the display? Probably not. Or the changing of color patterns to show different dots or stripes during breeding?

As much as I despise the thought, I think many "community" fish can probably be mixed provided some common sense guidelines are followed.
1. Make sure water paramaters are the same. Soft water fish with soft water fish etc.
2. Don't get two groups of fish that occupy the same niche. Can you house am African catfish with South American hatchetfish? Maybe, one is more bottom oriented the other is surface orientated.
3. Plenty of structure in the tank. Hardscspe, caves, sight breaks etc.
4. Enough food of the correct type to minimize competition.

As well all know we want to minimize stress on our fish. Stress = a lessened resistance to pathogens. Are mixed communities from different continents more stressful because the inhabitants cannot recognize visual cues from the other fish?

 

[Innesfan50 12]

Many of us of a certain age grew up when 'community tanks' prevailed and there was no consideration paid to geographic origins. As time went on I became a purist in that regard and my tanks were individually devoted to Amazonian, Central American, Asian or African species. More recently, as I've been downsizing, my 75g has become a very pleasing mixture comprising schools of Amazonian Characins (Nannostomus and Paracheirodon) and "Cories" (H. metae), Southeast Asian Rasboras (Brevibora dorsiocelatta) and Indian Barbs (Pethia setnai). Despite their geographic diversity, they all enjoy the same parameters and get along famously. It has become one of my favorite tanks ever.

 

[Back in the fold8 6]

I haven’t mixed fish since the 1970’s and then it was Tetra’s with Tetra’s and Gourami’s with Gourami’s . I knew never to mix cichlids . One time , just ONE time I mixed Neon Tetra’s with Angelfish with horrifying results . Ever since I keep single species aquariums only with just one exception . I have the last two of my Mickey Mouse Platy’s in with my Endler horde . The Platy’s died out over the past two years and have served to confirm to me that fish should only be kept with their own kind .

 

[gwand52 168]

I have a 29g tank with 6 dwarf red coral platy, pair of gold sailfin Mollys, 6 male endlers and four honey gourami. Very colorful. Very peaceful. My other tanks are region specific.

 

[GaryE13 11]

We can be strange, when you think about it. For example, I could say I have African tanks. But one look at a map and you realize a fish from Guinea comes from a vast distance away from a fish from the Congo. A Gabonese fish probably comes from a cooler water higher elevation than an outwardly similar savannah fish from Benin. The Cross River region of Nigeria/Cameroon has a radically different fauna from the southern end of Gabon. And so on and so forth.
A pet peeve of mine is when people say they have African Cichlids, and mean Lake Malawi fish. It's a big lake, but it's a tiny part of one of the most interesting continents out there. Meanwhile, a fish from Colombia compared to a fish from Argentina is South American, but from radically different conditions. As you head towards Antarctica, it starts to cool down. It's a bit like if I said I knew all Europeans because I met someone from Bulgaria.

The true biotope aquarium matches substrate type, temperature, plants and fish. I've read people on forums who took that literally, and were shocked at what happened when they put predators with prey. In one river you have shallows, fast water, slow bends, planted zones, deep zones ... all are different biotopes.

I don't do many serious biotope tanks. I have with fish choices, but I always end up up with Asian crypts in there, even though I don't keep a single Asian fish.

 

[Rusty_Shackleford52 167]

We can be strange, when you think about it. For example, I could say I have African tanks. But one look at a map and you realize a fish from Guinea comes from a vast distance away from a fish from the Congo. A Gabonese fish probably comes from a cooler water higher elevation than an outwardly similar savannah fish from Benin. The Cross River region of Nigeria/Cameroon has a radically different fauna from the southern end of Gabon. And so on and so forth.
A pet peeve of mine is when people say they have African Cichlids, and mean Lake Malawi fish. It's a big lake, but it's a tiny part of one of the most interesting continents out there. Meanwhile, a fish from Colombia compared to a fish from Argentina is South American, but from radically different conditions. As you head towards Antarctica, it starts to cool down. It's a bit like if I said I knew all Europeans because I met someone from Bulgaria.

The true biotope aquarium matches substrate type, temperature, plants and fish. I've read people on forums who took that literally, and were shocked at what happened when they put predators with prey. In one river you have shallows, fast water, slow bends, planted zones, deep zones ... all are different biotopes.

I don't do many serious biotope tanks. I have with fish choices, but I always end up up with Asian crypts in there, even though I don't keep a single Asian fish.

What gets me is the people that do literal biotope aquariums. How in the world could you actually source and obtain wood, sand, rocks, botanicals from South America? There is zero chance I would ever be that anal and take it to that extreme. It's fairly easy to do the research and find the correct plants, but I'm not importing wood and substrate from another continent to have a 100% match.

 

[bgarthe53 70]

I used to be more if a purist, but have mellowed some and now focus on primarily compatibility. A few of my tanks are all SA tetras and one is almost African and a few are mixed. I have found that many (not all) well thought out combos of tetras and rasboras work well. Like said above, a true biotope tank would have flora, fauna, and raw materials from Asia or wherever.
My 55g nano fish tank, for example, is a total conglomeration of perhaps 50+ small to tiny fish from all over, but it is serene with virtually no fish conflicts. That….is my objective more than doing a pseudo biotope tank. But, the beauty of this hobby is that one can do whatever pleases him or herself.

 

[GaryE13 11]

The purists will, for example, research substrate. You can find the same or really similar substrates elsewhere. So if a video shows white sand, you get chemically neutral white sand. You get similar rocks. It takes a lot of work I'll never do, but...

I like fish from Northwest Africa. It just so happens I live within walking distance of some rock that geologists have been discussing for decades. It seems it was ripped apart by plate tectonics and reappears in.... Guinea. So technically, I could get Guinean Enigmatochromis, a fish I love, or A thomasi, and put them in a tank with that rock and maybe be authentic... weird world, weird hobby.

But I'll cheat, put chemically neutral beach rocks and grow crypts, because I like growing them.

The coolest African streams I've been in had no plants and sand mud bottoms with flow we can't make in aquariums.

That doesn't mean you can't do what this hobby is about - having fun. If the biotope idea intrigues you - do your best.

 

[Rusty_Shackleford52 167]

I think I recently read that the East coast of the U.S./Canada was once attached to the West coast of Africa and the spreading of the Mid Atlantic plate actually ripped the huge land mass apart. If you look at a map you can see how they fit together at one time. So it makes sense to find the same rock in both places.