New World Vs African Cichlids

[crooow]

Long time lurker, first time poster. The wife and I got a 20G tank last year because we've always enjoyed fish and thought it'd look nice in the living room. We did the whole fishless cycle, filled it with some platys, danios, and barbs, and now we can't get enough.

I want to add a 75G cichlid tank to my workout room in the basement, and I'm having trouble deciding between new world and african fish. One the one hand, a fish like an oscar seems to have a lot of personality, and it's one of my favoirte. On the other hand, the colors of the african cichlids are striking, and you can fit way more of them in a single tank. I'm torn!

...so i'm asking you folks out there who've kept both: Which is your favorite? Why? I know this is the new world forum and the answers will probably be biased (i'm leaning toward an oscar or maybe a couple of convicts anyway).

 

[SamUK]

well speaking from experience, african cichlid tank on my left and oscar, severum etc tank to my right (well its kinda behind me actually).

id say go with africans with that tank size.


one thing though, reseacrh, reasearch, go find out what fish you can get hold of from your LFS, then research some more.

you really need to kno what your putting in your tank, they seem ok at first but once matured a bit they start to get really aggressive.


once you kno what your doingtho you can create some stunning tanks you really can.


if you go with new worlds like oscar then your pretty much fully stocked at that.

hope that helps, got disturbed half way thru typing so i lost my flow lol but it should give youi an idea.

 

[demonmagus]

well, do you want rocks, or plants? lol

Angel fish are new worlds and so 1 angel will not fully stock that, tbh I would say it is your choice, but that would not help.

go african if you want a super active, high stocked tank, and new worlds if you want a calming planted tank (unless you want an oscar )

 

[Ferris]

Tough call, i have both and to be honest, if i had to choose between losing either tank or the 3-piece suite, the sofa etc would have to go. I couldn't choose between them but for a 75 gal i'd maybe edge towards an Mbuna tank because its on the minimum size for an Oscar.

Just my thoughts.

 

[annka5]

Personally, I like plants in an aquarium. I also like less inthe way of constant aggression. So definitely new world.
I agree the colours of africans can be stunning, but then the shapes of many of the new worlds are lots nicer... think of angels or discus or whatever (none of which would work with an oscar, admittedly!!). There's a huge variety of shapes with New Worlds whereas Africans are generally all "fish shaped".. . not well put but you know what I mean..!
And tank mates - you can't exactly keep a shoal of colourful tetra or cory in with mbuna or haps, can you?
What's your water chemistry? Generally africans like hard alkaline, new world like soft and acidic. It's always going to be easier to keep fish which like your water as ot comes out the tap.

 

[wesleydnunder]

I like both but lean toward discus. As annka5 pointed out, your tapwater parameters may lend themselves to keeping one or the other. I vote for lots of research.

Mark

 

[KathyM]

I would go New World too, but not an Oscar. The thing about Oscars is they are very picky about how/what goes in with them - ours was petrified of other fish, so would've had to live alone, and to be honest in a 75g all you can fit is one oscar, nothing else really. Not much to look at in that scenario.

I think 75g would make a nice angel tank, or maybe one of the other smaller cichlids that would live happily with other fish.

 

[crooow]

Everyone's been very helpful. I'll probably go with smaller new world cichlids for now. Who knows...maybe in the future I'll have both african and new world tanks. Thanks!