Tiger Barbs and African Cichlids?

tttnjfttt

I have a point, just don't ask me what it is
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I will be getting a 40 gal tank within the next week, and would like keep African Cichlids. Besides thinking these fish are beautiful, my water has a pH of 8.0 (KH and GH are both in the soft range). I am just beginning to research this, so I really couldn't tell you what fish I would like to keep. I do know I am interested in finding some smaller cichlids.

The dilemma is I have a shoal of 6 tiger barbs, ranging from 1.5-2.5" each. I bougth these fish before really knowing their requirements, and they do need to be moved into the new tank (currently housed in a 20 gal).

Can I keep my tiger barbs in with african cichlids?

If I can, can anyone suggest some fish for me that will stay no larger than 5"

Also, does anyone have any good resources for me to start out looking at? I have read through the pinned topic "The Mbuna Aquarium", but I feel I have alot to learn before diving in.

Thanks

EDIT: The dimensions of the tank are 36 inches long 17 inches high and 15 inches wide, and if you want to see a picture of it, click here
 
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Tiger barbs are usually used as dithers for aggressive African cichlids. This means that since they are such agile nippy fish, they give the cichlids something to focus on attacking besides each other, and usually the barbs can take it. A good website I found for research is :Cichlid-forum, they have a lot of beginner articles in their library and also very long profiles on many of the more popular African cichlids.
If you want fish that don't exceed five inch's, your best bet is to go with Mbuna or Haps. Both are from lake Malawi, I may recommend Haps more than Mbuna because tiger barbs are omnivores, and I believe all Mbuna except for the Labidochromus and Labidotropheus family should be kept fairly strictly on herbivore diets. But if you were to choose Mbuna, as I mentioned the ever popular Labidochromus Caeruleus would be a good companion, along with some more peaceful Mbuna like Acei cichlids or Rusty Cichlids, which all top out at about 4-4.5 inches. I don't know too much about haps, but on the website I mentioned it's easy just to look through all of the profiles and if you see one that catches your eye, read the statistics on length and temperament, or even the article that is included with it. :)
 
How ironic is this...because I wasn't getting an answer on here (not sure if it was from people just not knowing for what ever reason), I went in search of more answers and actually found that website. I think I am going to go ahead and try keeping the tiger barbs in there. (I also posted a similar question on there, hoping for more specific experience). Yesterday, I did a search on fish who were herbavores, and looked for fish that got no bigger than 4". They are also all listed as mildly agressive or peaceful. Here is my current list, now I just get to find all of them hope they aren't too expensive...


*Cynotilapia afra (Cobue)
*Cynotilapia afra (Lumbila)
*Labidochromis sp. "Perlmutt"
*Labidochromis textiles
*Melanochromis cyaneorhabdos
*Melanochromis perileucos
*Melanochromis simulans
*Metriaclima sp. "Black Dorsal Heteropictus"
*Metriaclima sp. "Membe Deep"
 
Melanochromis and Metriaclima are the most aggressive Mbuna families; they might just be a little too much for your barbs. Take into consideration some of the cichlids I mentioned above, although they may be a little over 4 inch's when adults, I've been keeping them for a while now and have found them to be very suitable fish that would get along good with barbs. Plus they are all completely different colors (something important when picking cichlids, you don't want them to be too similar), and the Blue, Brown, and Yellow contrast between the three is very striking. :thumbs:
 
Alright, i will definately look into them. The fish that I posted was my research from last night, definately not the be all and end all, just more sharing what I had come up with, and proving why its always best to ask.
 

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