Whats The Difference

[chishnfips]

Hi folks, I was just wondering what the main differences are, can you keep them together in a tank? I would presume you can as the come from the same place...dont they?

cheers chish

 

[Ferris]

Whilst Haps and Mbuna come from the same lake, there are significant differences. Haps are open water carnivore predators that generally reach an average of 10" wheras Mbuna are mostly herbivores that live in and around the rocks and tend to reach around 5" depending on the species. Haps tend to be less aggressive than Mbuna and struggle to cope with them at a similar size but the tables are turned when the Haps reach adulthood due to the big difference in size.

They can be kept together but it requires a large tank because of the potential size of the haps and feeding is a big problem as their requirements are usually complete opposites.

 

[chishnfips]

ah ok, best not then, well in my tank anyway, cheers for the info.

Its a shame some haps are really nice. Are peacocks haps?

 

[Ferris]

Aulonocara (Peacocks) are different again. They tend to be less aggressive than both Haps and Mbuna and reach around 7", they are also carnivores. They are easier to keep together than Haps and Mbuna and a mixed Aulonocara tank is visually stunning, which IMO easily rivals a marine tank.

One point worth knowing though is that it's only the males that show the bright colours, females are usually a rather drab brown. Check out some of these stunners:

http/www.cichlid-forum.com/profiles/results.php?genus=17

 

[chishnfips]

wow, some of those peacocks are amazing, I would love to get some, the only thing putting me of is the feeding of them. How would you make sure that the peacocks got their meaty foods without the mbuna chowing down on it too? Or will peacocks be ok on a mbuna diet with the odd brine shrimp thrown in every week?

cheers again

 

[Ferris]

Or will peacocks be ok on a mbuna diet with the odd brine shrimp thrown in every week?

That's pretty much the best answer. I tend to use quite a lot of spirulina enriched frozen brine shrimp which is OK for my herbivores, omnivores and carnivores but a veggie flake is still the staple diet.

 

[chishnfips]

Magic cheers ferris, next to nmonks you are the dogs jibblets lol. I feel a trip to my lfs coming on lol.

 

[Ferris]

Magic cheers ferris, next to nmonks you are the dogs jibblets lol. I feel a trip to my lfs coming on lol.

That is indeed a compliment .