# Jewel Cichlid in Mbuna and SA/CA Tanks at LFS? What the deal



## E_Unit79 (Nov 1, 2009)

As the subject suggests I have seen jewels in many various tanks at the lfs. But what I want to know is which group is best for them (mbuna?, ca? sa?) and also what tankmates are best? I am confused.


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## MalawiTopTeam (Feb 11, 2010)

E_Unit79 said:


> As the subject suggests I have seen jewels in many various tanks at the lfs. But what I want to know is which group is best for them (mbuna?, ca? sa?) and also what tankmates are best? I am confused.


Jewels are african cichlids but they are found in the river systems rather than the rift lakes. Their water and dietary needs more closely match CA/SA cichlids(in comparison to the rifties) , and in my opinion so do their behavior and habits. With that said I wouldnt attempt to house these little beauties with any of the more peaceful South Americans. They can become extremely aggressive during spawning.


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## Boldstone (Sep 14, 2007)

My Jewel's currently reside with Jack Dempseys, they work great together. The Jewels school.


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## GotCichlids? (May 21, 2010)

I currently house my Jewels with Mbuna as you can see in my signature. So far so good the water and diet hasn't effected them at all. They are quite aggressive and thats why i think that they work well with the fish I have b/c all are pretty aggressive and they have no problem holding their own. I would have never done this if I knew what I know now and I think that I have just gotten lucky with good fish. I was told at my LFS like you are seeing that this is fine as long as you put African with African and SA/CA with SA/CA. They apparently didn't realize that all of the African cichlids that they have are from the rift lakes except the Jewels that are from the river systems so tech they aren't to be together. It works for me but I wouldn't recommend it to others. They are beautiful fish and great spawners very east to breed! Mine are on their second round already!


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## PepoLD (Dec 9, 2009)

I love to keep Jewels in CA tanks, they seem to live so happy with them.. they always spawn like crazy

plus imo huge CA can handle better the Jewel breeding agression... but yeah they are africans from rift lakes


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## a+fishman (Jun 12, 2010)

IM glad to find a Jewel topic, i recently bought a JD, jewel and a firemouth from LFS. Well a week ago I found about a hundred fry swimming at the bottom of my tank. It was an esablished tank as i had a flag sestivum for about 2 yrs in it b4 she decided ti die one morning just as i cut the light on.Well come to find out i have two jewels. the poor firemouth didnt stand a chance with mated jewels.( Small town LFS) Well I have a 40 gallon tank with 2 Jewels about 100 or so fry and 1 pleco. They hatched about a week ago and are starting to free swim now all I have is a 2 galon tank i can use till next week or so when i get paid should that be ok? Also im getting married on july10 and leaving for a weeek on the honeymoon what should i do with these during that time?


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