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American Cichlids


Cichlid Pete

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Hi Guys,

I have kept African Cichlids (mostly predator haps) for the last handful of years and now am considering moving to American.

I have a 6x2x2.5 tanks with 2 FX6's.

I'm not sure if I should set up a community tank or just have a single pair of something like Dovii or Umbee's. I'm aware that Dovii and Umbee will need a larger tank down the track.

I would prefer to keep larger Americans.

Just looking for a advice and direction.

Thanks

Peter

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Hi Pete

first thing is decide what American takes your fancy then work out from there

Do you want to go the Central or South American direction as water parameters come into play

Centrals prefer harder water like Malawi while a lot of the Sth American species like a neutral to acid range

a pair of FX6 will work fine for filtration

or if you want something different there is Paratilapia polleni from Madagascar or Heterotilapia buttikoferi from East Africa

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Hi Chris,

Thanks for replying.

I think it would be easier to stick with the Central Americans as my tank is setup for Malawi and I wouldn't have to change the substrate. Would probably just add some drift wood for more hiding places.

Just not sure if I have half a dozen males or go with a pair of Dovii or Umbees.

If anyone has any suggestions on what combinations will work, that would be great.

Regards

Peter

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if you want just a pair that grow big Dovii , Umbriferum or Festae

if you want just males look to one of these and then Veija like Melanurum , Synspilum, Maculcauda - Black Belt, Zonatum or Coatzacoalcos,

or Maskaheros Argentea, Geo Brasiliensis, Red Devil to make up numbers and you could add Paratilapia polleni, silver dollars, tinfoil barbs, Datnoids also

Crowding seems to reduce aggression when no females present but some fish can just take a dislike to someone else and start trouble

 

Dovii you should be able to find sub adults maybe a young pair or fry

 

Umbriferum I don't think it will be easy to find any sub adults but there has been fry become available

lately at about the 5-7 cm size

 

.Festae  you should be able to find sub adults maybe a young pair or fry

 

you might find the Sept meeting of NSWCS interesting as we will have Mo Devlin over from the USA

he will be talking on photography and Large Americans and that includes collecting

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Once again thanks very much for the advice Chris.

I think I'm leaning more towards a pair of Dovii or Umbee.

I have seen that Andrew has some Umbee available at the moment.

Do you think it would be a crazy idea to grab a pair and add them to my current African tank for the short term?

I would add some drift wood and maybe a couple more rocks. Most of my fish are 15cm's and above.

Regards

Peter

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the Umbee at Labyrinth are still a bit small to sex I think but Andrew would give it a good shot

usually the females are larger when young and develop a black front section of the dorsal fin usually about 8-10cm size

Umbee like Malawi parameter water and would be able to hold their own in an African tank until you set their tank up

there will be a bag with 4 of them at the NSWCS August meeting for the AGM and Monster Fish Raffle we are organising

 

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