# African and American Community Tank



## Bikeman48088 (Nov 13, 2013)

While looking for some dithers for my 110 gallon tank containing juvenile Firemouths and Jack Dempseys, I stopped in a LFS and saw a tank labeled South American Cichlids on sale for $1.00 each. They were beautiful blue striped cichlids and I thought they might be African cichlids, so I asked the employee if they had hard water African Cichlid tanks. She said that all of their tanks ran off the same common water system, so I took a gamble on 5 fish.
It turns out that they are Mozambiques and now I have a mixed American and African tank with 4 Firemouths, 5 Jack Dempseys, 5 Mozambiques and an unidentified cichlid that looks similar to a Jack Dempsey. 
What are the chances of this being a harmonious community tank with ~100-200ppm of natural hardness at a pH of 7.8-8.0?


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## pablo111 (Dec 10, 2013)

I wouldn't be so sure you have Mozambiques. Post a picture of all your fish so we can be sure what you have. Right off the bat, though, it sounds like you're going to have problems.


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## Bikeman48088 (Nov 13, 2013)

After doing some more research, I believe they are Cobalt Zebras. Some have dark stripes and pronounced anal spots while others are more subdued grayish blue.
I'm having trouble transferring a picture from my I-phone. I had to reinstall I-Tunes.


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## Bikeman48088 (Nov 13, 2013)

New Fish by bikeman48088, on Flickr


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## Bikeman48088 (Nov 13, 2013)

And the unknown cichlid.....


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## nmcichlid-aholic (Mar 23, 2011)

Bikeman48088 said:


> New Fish by bikeman48088, on Flickr


The inconsistent Barring, Along With The Cheap Price And The Fact They Were In An "Assorted" Tank, Screams Hybrid. There Are Numerous Blue-Barred Mbuna Species Out There, And Unfortunately A Lot Of Commercial Breeders aren't Very Careful About Mixing Them (Or Not Mixing Them).


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## Bikeman48088 (Nov 13, 2013)

Thanks for your input. I went looking for dithers to put in with my shy Firemouths and Jack Dempseys and came out with five of these that are certainly bringing the shy fish out of hiding, so they're doing their job.


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## Bikeman48088 (Nov 13, 2013)




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## pablo111 (Dec 10, 2013)

That's quite the new and old world melting pot you have. I don't know how it'll work out long term. One thing that concerns me- at one point one or two pellets of food are dropped in. A Mbuna of some sort (couldn't tell what it was) saw it, swam past and ignored it. That is not normal behavior for mbuna. They will kill to get another mouthful of food.


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## Bikeman48088 (Nov 13, 2013)

pablo111 said:


> That's quite the new and old world melting pot you have. I don't know how it'll work out long term. One thing that concerns me- at one point one or two pellets of food are dropped in. A Mbuna of some sort (couldn't tell what it was) saw it, swam past and ignored it. That is not normal behavior for mbuna. They will kill to get another mouthful of food.


The Mbunas are the first in the chow line. They attack the pellets as soon as they hit the water. I've been overfeeding them while they are all getting used to their new tankmates. I'm feeding them Cichlid mini-pellets and veggie flakes. I've never seen little fish eat so much. LOL
I can already see the pecking order forming within each species. The king of the tank right now is a male Firemouth that controls the big holey rock. The dominant male Dempsey controls the ceramic log and the dominant male Mbuna just cruises around occasionally chasing another Mbuna. 
I'm sure that, at some point, I'll need to play traffic cop, but right now, there is zero fin nipping and only minimal territorial conflict. I watch closely for signs of battle. So far, so good. I don't know what will happen when I go down to one feeding per day, though.


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## pablo111 (Dec 10, 2013)

Your mbuna did look bloated to me. Sorry but I think you're way overfeeding. This can lead to major health issues including the dreaded malawi bloat. I strongly suggest you feed less. Also, you shouldn't have the mix of fish you have, if only for the fact that they have differing nutritional requirements. Mbuna should only be fed a veggie heavy diet (omega 1 kelp pellets, Tetra veggie flakes, Dainichi Veggie deluxe or FX, North fin Vegetarian, etc etc). This is not true of your other fish though. There are lots of reasons why responsible fishkeepers (don't take that the wrong way, I'm not calling you irresponsible) choose to keep only diet and region compatible fish together. They are sound reasons and they should be respected. You'll have healthier happier fish if you house them in a manner specific to their dietary and environmental needs.


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## pablo111 (Dec 10, 2013)

EDIT: sorry I got confused it was someone else's video where the fish looked bloated yours don't look bloated. If you're power feeding though, you should still cut back as overfeeding is pointless (fish won't grow faster) and has all kinds of bad consequences.



Bikeman48088 said:


> After doing some more research, I believe they are Cobalt Zebras. Some have dark stripes and pronounced anal spots while others are more subdued grayish blue.
> I'm having trouble transferring a picture from my I-phone. I had to reinstall I-Tunes.


You don't need to use iTunes to get videos and photos from your iphone to your computer. In Windows go to computer/my computer and find the phone. Open it, open the DCIM folder and any subfolder and your photos and videos are in there. Just drag and drop them off the phone.


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## Bikeman48088 (Nov 13, 2013)

pablo111 said:


> EDIT: sorry I got confused it was someone else's video where the fish looked bloated yours don't look bloated. If you're power feeding though, you should still cut back as overfeeding is pointless (fish won't grow faster) and has all kinds of bad consequences.


I was overfeeding purposefully so that there wouldn't be any hostilities between the newbies and their veteran tankmates.
I've been feeding the fish a variety of foods. TetraVeggie Waffers for the pleco and algae eater, TetraVeggie spirulina-enhanced flakes, Aqueon slow-sinking mini Cichlid pellets and Omega One Cichlid Flakes.
The Mbunas are voracious eaters and do tend to look like guppies after feeding time, but I'm trying to make sure that everybody gets some food.



Bikeman48088 said:


> After doing some more research, I believe they are Cobalt Zebras. Some have dark stripes and pronounced anal spots while others are more subdued grayish blue.
> I'm having trouble transferring a picture from my I-phone. I had to reinstall I-Tunes.


You don't need to use iTunes to get videos and photos from your iphone to your computer. In Windows go to computer/my computer and find the phone. Open it, open the DCIM folder and any subfolder and your photos and videos are in there. Just drag and drop them off the phone.[/quote]

My computer was having issues with recognizing my I-phone via the USB port. Everytime I plugged the phone in, all of my USB poprts froze. Re-installing I-Tunes and setting it to automatically download pictures cured the issue...for now. I rarely use my home desktop computer, preferring mobile devices such as I-phone, laptop, Ipad or Nexus 7 instead and just realized it was still using Vista. LOL
I should have just e-mailed the photo to myself and saved it from there.


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## pablo111 (Dec 10, 2013)

Bikeman48088 said:


> I was overfeeding purposefully so that there wouldn't be any hostilities between the newbies and their veteran tankmates.
> I've been feeding the fish a variety of foods. TetraVeggie Waffers for the pleco and algae eater, TetraVeggie spirulina-enhanced flakes, Aqueon slow-sinking mini Cichlid pellets and Omega One Cichlid Flakes.
> The Mbunas are voracious eaters and do tend to look like guppies after feeding time, but I'm trying to make sure that everybody gets some food.


Never feed any fish until it gets a big bulge in it's stomach. A very slight fullness (barely noticeable) is fine but never feed the fish so much that it bloats. It is dangerous. Especially for a lot of Africans.


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## Bikeman48088 (Nov 13, 2013)

pablo111 said:


> Bikeman48088 said:
> 
> 
> > I was overfeeding purposefully so that there wouldn't be any hostilities between the newbies and their veteran tankmates.
> ...


Thanks for the tip.


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## Bikeman48088 (Nov 13, 2013)

Update on my mixed African/CA cichlid tank after 5 months.

Four of the 17 fish have carved out territories in my tank. The far left is controlled by a dull-looking JD. Next to him is an mbuna, possibly a M. callanoi, digging away. Next to him, and overlapping are another mbuna and the tank boss, a beautiful colored JD. On a few occasions, particularly when food drifts across boundaries, the JDs and mbunas will get in each others face and try to intimidate one another. The mbunas typically flinch first without any further aggression. The rest of the fish tip-toe around the tank hoping nobody chases them. I've tried adding some PVC bends and pieces of straight pipe as temporary sanctuaries, but they are not being used in the daytaime. Occasionally, they will be used when the lights go out, though.
Since the aggressive behavior has been limited to occasional chasing and nobody has any torn up fins, I'm going to let them continue after I rearrange the furniture and fill in the holes one more time.


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