Best tankmates for L. Brichardi?
John M. Jaskula
Hi again, folks!
I'm setting up my fourth tank, a 35 gallon intended to be a community
tank primarily for African Cichlids. The only thing I've definitely
settled on so far are Brichardis.
Any suggestions as to what other Africans that will complement and be
compatible with the Brichardis? There will be lots of rockwork for
hiding places, if needed. Yes, I know EVERYONE will need it at one
time or another! :)
I'd also like to know if it's safe to keep any Corys in this proposed
happy little community. My guess is that even the least
aggressive/territorial Africans would be too much for the Corys. If
so, what would be the most appropriate choice for scavengers?
As always, many thanks in advance, everyone!
John
esa...@wsunix.wsu.edu
I can not tell you what the best tankmates for L. brichardi are,
but I can tell you that in a proper Rift Lake tank the Corydoras will not
survive. Corydoras spp. come from the soft acidic waters of South America
while your L. brichardi come from the VERY hard alkaline waters of Lake
Tanganyika. Your Corydoras would do as well as the L. brichardi would do
in a tank full of plants with a pH of 6 and a very low DH (i.e. not very).
Also, the only "scavenger" in the tank should be your Python. Lake
Tanganyika stays clean without Corydoras so why should your tank need
them? There really is no such thing as a fish that keeps your aquarium
clean. I would also be careful about calling Corydoras "scavenger" since
you never know who is a Corydoras fan and they may be seriously offended
by this comment. There are lots of African cichlids that can be kept with
corys (Pelvicachromis, Nanochromis, Thysochromis, etc.) but none of them
would do well with your L. brichardi since they come from soft acidic
waters. Since your heart is set on L. brichardi (a beautiful fish) I would
go with some smaller bagrids or mochokids if you want catfish tankmates.
-Shane
I decided to stop drinking with creeps.
I decided to drink only with friends.
I've lost 30 pounds.
- Ernest Hemingway
Crom
<esa...@wsunix.wsu.edu> wrote:
>waters. Since your heart is set on L. brichardi (a beautiful fish) I would
>go with some smaller bagrids or mochokids if you want catfish tankmates.
Sorry.. Catfish ignorant here. Bagrids? Mochokids? Urp.. what are
those?
Thanx,
Brian T. Forsythe
cr...@cris.com
Every picture is not worth a thousand words; besides, I think I'd rather have the thousand words.
Aaron Childs
tried to keep some medium sized cories with my L. Brichardi and the
cories were found finless in a couple weeks. You might try some Lachata
Botias and/or any synodonis species. The synodonis will usually hide
during the day, but the Lachatas are always out and about.
Most of the tanganyikans will get along with the Brichardi, but the
brichardies can easily dominate a small tank in a short while. When I
say dominate I mean they breed like crazy I have three generationsd that
were not eaten by the synodonis. One of my favorite fish is my C.
Frontosa. Some of the other fish in my tank are L. Compressiceps, L
Calvis, L. Lelupi, S. Europes, L. Brichardi, and some peacocks.
Troy
Bradley Hannum
John M. Jaskula wrote:
>
> Hi again, folks!
>
> I'm setting up my fourth tank, a 35 gallon intended to be a community
> tank primarily for African Cichlids. The only thing I've definitely
> settled on so far are Brichardis.
>
> Any suggestions as to what other Africans that will complement and be
> compatible with the Brichardis? There will be lots of rockwork for
> hiding places, if needed. Yes, I know EVERYONE will need it at one
> time or another! :)
>
> I'd also like to know if it's safe to keep any Corys in this proposed
> happy little community. My guess is that even the least
> aggressive/territorial Africans would be too much for the Corys. If
> so, what would be the most appropriate choice for scavengers?
>
> As always, many thanks in advance, everyone!
>
> John
As Troy mentioned, you should be able to keep your L.Brichardi with L.
Lelupi. I've kept both in a 29 gal. in sets of 4 each. I didn't keep
any cats with them either, and just vacuumed the bottom frequently. The
brichardi actually bred, and laid eggs (on the roof of a small cave, but
all the others in the tank enjoyed the meal. I'd have tried it again in
a different tank when they were alone, but space etc. One note, the
Lelupi (sometimes called L. Longior) can range from yellow to orange in
color, and can jump out of the aquarium!! (from a small feeding hole 1"
square) good luck..
Nick Wagner
John M. Jaskula wrote:
> I'd also like to know if it's safe to keep any Corys in this proposed
> happy little community. My guess is that even the least
> aggressive/territorial Africans would be too much for the Corys. If
> so, what would be the most appropriate choice for scavengers?
>
especially if they are in groups of 3 or more.
--
****************************************************************************
Nick Wagner http://www.icaen.uiowa.edu/~nawagner
University of Iowa
nawa...@icaen.uiowa.edu
Biomedical/Electrical office 5301 #7
Engineering
Matthew Mcmillan
Bradley Hannum wrote:
>
> As Troy mentioned, you should be able to keep your L.Brichardi with L.
> Lelupi. I've kept both in a 29 gal. in sets of 4 each. I didn't keep
> any cats with them either, and just vacuumed the bottom frequently. The
> brichardi actually bred, and laid eggs (on the roof of a small cave, but
> all the others in the tank enjoyed the meal. I'd have tried it again in
> a different tank when they were alone, but space etc. One note, the
> Lelupi (sometimes called L. Longior) can range from yellow to orange in
> color, and can jump out of the aquarium!! (from a small feeding hole 1"
> square) good luck..
Against my better judgement, I let someone talk me into buying what I
thought were two 1 male & 2 female N. brichari three months ago. I
definitely regret that decision. First the male paired up with a female
& started terrorizing the other fish in the tank. I removed him &
everyone was happy until the other "female" turned out to be male,
& once again chaos reigned. In my experience, the fish is *too* easily
bred to be desirable in a multi-species tank. Your mileage may vary.
One thing I can attest to is that the are voracious fry gobblers. If
any other species manages to breed, as my N. lelupi finally did (after
ten months of failed attempts), the brichardi are going to have a
feast. My view is colored by the fact that I never wanted this fish in
the first place, but every time I look at their bellies (bulging from
their recent fry orgy) I get pissed off. I'm taking them back to the
store this weekend.
In response to John's question about corys in a african tank: I'm
sure someone has pointed out the the water chemistry requirements of
all corys makes that a bad idea. Try snails or a clown pleco.
Matthew Mcmillan
Troy wrote:
> Some of the other fish in my tank are ...S. Europes,
This fish is not listed among Tanganyikans in the CHOP. Can you
please describe it & give the full scientific name?
matt
No, it's not me
My friend has a nice 40g Brichardi tank that's been up for about four years.
There are so many rocks and hiding places he no longer knows how many fish are
actually in the tank, from the various sizez he knows they are breeding but
hasn't seen any overpopulation problems so figures they are eating enough young
to keep the tank habitable. He's got a couple of pleco's that are doing quite
well, one is as old as the tank, one a little over a year. I also heard that
synodontis cat's are good tankmates for cichlids.
Alexander Langer
> John M. Jaskula wrote:
> >
> > Hi again, folks!
> >
> > I'm setting up my fourth tank, a 35 gallon intended to be a community
> > tank primarily for African Cichlids. The only thing I've definitely
> > settled on so far are Brichardis.
> >
> > Any suggestions as to what other Africans that will complement and be
> > compatible with the Brichardis? There will be lots of rockwork for
> > hiding places, if needed. Yes, I know EVERYONE will need it at one
> > time or another! :)
> >
> > I'd also like to know if it's safe to keep any Corys in this proposed
> > happy little community. My guess is that even the least
> > aggressive/territorial Africans would be too much for the Corys. If
> > so, what would be the most appropriate choice for scavengers?
> >
> > As always, many thanks in advance, everyone!
> >
> > John
>
> Lelupi (sometimes called L. Longior)
A comment: They are called longior sometimes, but it are not the same
fish...
Hmm, to your problem:
I think a nice tankmate for your tank was a pair of Julidochromis
marlieri. The marlieris have to have the same size as the brichardis.
You can also put some (Para-)Cyprichromis into the tank, for example
Parac. nigrippinnis.
This would be a nice working combination, I think.
Of course you put many stones etc. into the tank, that there are
enough caves for both the marlieris and the brichardis. Both of them
have to have their own territory... ;-)
Alex
*******************************************************
* Alexander Langer <rp1...@online-club.de> *
* ! Lake Tanganyika Cichlid Homepage ! *
* http://online-club.de/members0/LTCH/ *
*******************************************************
Matthew Mcmillan
Hi,
My fish store just got some new fish that I'm not familiar with
(New World Aquarium on 8th st in NYC, in case your intersted). They
are called "Nagra" in the store. The employees of the store are
generally very well informed, but they didn't know the scientific
name.
A brief description:
The mature fish were about 4" and sexually dimorphic. The males had
orange bodies & a matallic blue face, with egg spots on the anal fin.
The females were drab. I have no way of knowing how old these fish
were, though the store had just recieved them (and just about sold
them all in a few hours), so fully grown adults may be somewhat
larger. Juveniles looked nothing like their parents. They were grey
with black stripes.
The store had the fish in a Tanganyikan tank They said that these
fish are really to docile to go into a Malawi tank. Can someone
please give me the scientific name for this fish? Any special food,
water quality, shelter & breeding info would also be appreciated.
I'd like to buy the six youngsters that they have left, in the hopes
of developing a breeding harem.
Thanks,
Matt
Dean Hougen
In article <32E65B...@bear.com>,
My guess is that he was thinking of the catfish Synodontus eupterus. I
don't believe it is found in Lake Tanganyika but then all Mochokids look
the same to us cichlidiots.
Dean Hougen
--
"Names make all the difference in the world." - Talking Heads
John Bijarney
Most likely this is Aulonocara stuartgranti Ngara, from the north
western coast of Lake Malawi. You mentioned egg spots on the male
which caused me to pause before offering my species diagnosis. I have
4 full grown males in a show tank(no females) and their egg spots are
NOT very visible. In the same area of the lake lives Aulonocara
ethylwynnae with prominent egg spots but no orange body like the Ngara
aulonocara. This could be an ongoing mystery unless someone else has
a more definitive opinion or you decide that those egg spots are not
very prominent.
Most mbuna(rock-dwelling Malawian cichlids) make very poor tankmates
for aulonocara species. Like most Malawians aulonocara breed easily
given a male and some females with clean water, large tank(over 40
gallons) and some hiding places. They are carnivorous, hunting for
invertebrates in the sand, and do well on a diet with protien as a
main ingredient. Lots of luck. The aulonocaras or Malawi peacocks
are for the most part mellow in disposition and often spectacular in
coloration. Caution though; I once had a very large and unusually
belligerent Aulonocara jacobfreibergi (the Otter Point version) which
hyperdominated a 125 gallon tank of utaka and C. moorii. After he had
driven every fish into the rocks he was poised alone and regally in
the center of the tank with NO OTHER FISH to be seen.