Which Catfish With Africans

[PufferFishRule]

i can put a catfish in with my africans...and a comon plec aswell right? algae is starting to form in my 55 malawi set up i have
1 malawi blue dolphin
1 Yellow tail Acei
1 Peacock of somesort (green and purple in color)
1 Albino Oblique
1 Eureka
1 Johani Electric blue
1 Albino Zebra?
1 Electric Yellow
1 blue an black stripped fella tiger stripes up an down..and a blueish purple have yet to identify

what could i put with em and how many more fish can i fit in the 55

would a otocinclus be ok...or would he be reguarded as food?

would a plec be ok with my keyhole/krib setup 29 gal?

will my jd's be ok in my 10 galon until i have there tank ready...36 gal corner...

 

[fishlette]

i can put a catfish in with my africans...and a comon plec aswell right? algae is starting to form in my 55 malawi set up i have
1 malawi blue dolphin
1 Yellow tail Acei
1 Peacock of somesort (green and purple in color)
1 Albino Oblique
1 Eureka
1 Johani Electric blue
1 Albino Zebra?
1 Electric Yellow
1 blue an black stripped fella tiger stripes up an down..and a blueish purple have yet to identify

what could i put with em and how many more fish can i fit in the 55

would a otocinclus be ok...or would he be reguarded as food?

would a plec be ok with my keyhole/krib setup 29 gal?

will my jd's be ok in my 10 galon until i have there tank ready...36 gal corner...

with my africans i have a pictus catfish, a sailfin pleco, a bumble bee catfish and 3 very small clown loaches. they all live really well together. the africans dont seem to even bother about the guys on the bottom.

just me personally i would put anymore fish in there other than your bottom dwellers. you have some pretty aggressive fish there at the moment and maybe its best to give everyone their space and territories. dunno, this is just what i would do there.

an otto wont last very long at all

pleco would not be ok in a 29gallon. you could maybe keep it there short term (and i mean very short term) but plecos really need quite large tanks.

depending on the size of your JD's they might be ok for once again, a very short term. however, they can grow up to 10" in which case the 36 gallon is not nearly big enough either

i would also check on the krib/keyhole scenario too. i dont know much about keyholes but im imaging issues with those two living together long term. anyway i could be wrong on that

why dont you think about some BN's for your algae prob?

 

[PufferFishRule]

i cant find any around my area....what could i put in the 29 as far as algae eaters? would a oto be ok in there?

and the fish you have described with your cichs clown loacheas..and such they all live well?

how big is the pictus? i can get them..the sail fin an bumblebee what do these look like...i have 3 clowns in with my girlfriends 28 galon...wich is terribly overstocked shes buying another tank to even things out there

 

[caboose_122]

synos are great with malawi cichlids you could also have a bn pleco.

otos are not recomended for cichlid tanks they have different water preferences

a bn plec would be fine in a 29 gal

the jd's wont be ok in a 10 gal,

pictus shouldent go with anything smaller then them, they have HUGE mouths and will eat anything that fits in it, sailfin plecs will get way to big for a 55 gallon, and clownloaches shouldent be with african cichlids either.

jd's get about 8-10 inches and should be kept in nothing less then a 55 gal

hope this helps

 

[PufferFishRule]

but will the pictus be ok? all my cichlids are decent size

 

[caboose_122]

i think pictus get about 6+ inches, anything half there size would be gone before you know it

 

[fishlette]

i cant find any around my area....what could i put in the 29 as far as algae eaters? would a oto be ok in there?

and the fish you have described with your cichs clown loacheas..and such they all live well?

how big is the pictus? i can get them..the sail fin an bumblebee what do these look like...i have 3 clowns in with my girlfriends 28 galon...wich is terribly overstocked shes buying another tank to even things out there

my pictus is about 4". and yes the loaches are fine with my africans contrary to what other people have/will say. as i said in my first post, the africans dont bother about anyone on the bottom. if its water quality caboose is worried about i have no issues with not putting something with something else cause of water quality. the reason is because we have great tap water. the water in every tank is 7.0-7.2 pH and other stats all A OK, so as such, all my tanks are suitable for all the fish i keep. other than those two things, that are of no consequence in my situation, there is no other reason clown loaches couldnt go in with africans. i have seen this scenario many times; at work we keep the africans in our planted tank and we keepp a couple of clown loaches in there to deal with the inevitable onslaught of pond snails whenever we get new plants. now i know everyone says its different in a pet shop but in this case its not different as they have a large tank set up as it would be at someones house as its a display tank. everyone has lived in harmony and without health issues in there for about 6 months now. my boss, has an african cichlid tank in her lounge room with clown loaches no problems. my best friends tank has africans and clown loaches. the list goes on but i wont bottom line is i believe through experience that clown loaches are fine with the africans i keep. btw that MAY make a difference depending on what africans we're talking. i have haps and peacocks of all kinds. dont know if mbuna are more aggressive with them or not but i have never seem them in this situation so cant comment

with regards to the pleco i had a different size tank in my head for some reason and yes, a pleco would get too big for that tank. dont worry about the sailfin then. the bumble bees grow to around 6" also and do better with 3-4 of them in the tank. i have only one but they are hard to get ardound here so i take what i can get

and yes three clowns in a 28g is crazy

 

[Ferris]

The Clown loach/African cichlid compatibility question crops up fairly regularly - here's my thoughts on the subject.

Clowns can indeed work with many African cichlids. There are however 2 main issues to consider:

1. Ph - African cichlids from Lake Malawi and Tanganyika should really be kept in tanks with a Ph over 8 - yes they can survive in lower Ph's and yes many are tank bred in a neutral Ph but if you want to see the best of them - you really need to recreate their natural habitat as much as possible. CL's of course are used to a more neutral Ph.

2. Clowns with Mbuna - this is difficult at best because of feeding issues. Most Mbuna are Herbivores and their digestive systems cannot process the meaty, high protein foods that CL's require - feeding this type of food can prove fatal to Mbuna. This is not so much of an issue with some of the Omnivore Mbuna species and is no problem with Haplochromis and Aulonocara as they are also Carnivores.

Agression is not an issue IMO - CL's can take care of themselves provided they are not added as juveniles to an adult Mbuna tank.

Tank size is another big factor. CL's should be kept in groups of at least 3, preferrably more and this requires at least a 5x2x2 tank IME to accomodate their adult size.

 

[chishnfips]

what about hoplo's in an mbuna tank?

 

[dthoffsett]

what about hoplo's in an mbuna tank?

IMO the mbunas are too aggressive for them.

 

[Ferris]

I kept my 3 Hoplo's (all adults) for 2 years in my Mbuna tank with no problems - I only moved them because i wanted some Syno's.

Worth trying if the Hoplo's are full-grown - otherwise i wouldn't reccommend it.