A South American amongst the Africans

[tinytawnykitten]

I have been 'given' (actually more like had it dumped on me) a large green severum. I can't put him/her in my community tank, having just added 12 little (tasty) neon tetras to it. So it is in my African cichlid setup. There has been no agression or foul play so far. Apart from being 'against the rules' what are the obvious problems with this?

[Mel]

We have 5 male convicts in with our mixed africans and have no problems at all with them apart from the odd tiff - only problem I can see is being only one the africans may pick on him or may not - I guess only time will tell if it works or not.

[phoenix44]

there should be no problems. pH maybe but im sure he will acclimatise just fine :bounce:

[spoon]

hmm so a recent purchase of mine involving a pair of the "convicted type" embarressingly thinking they were from another contiment is not actually so bad if they are getting on well with my other fish

[ryanjury]

They should get along fine, the theory is that keeping fish that aren't evolved to live in certain water conditions in the wrong water shortens their live and stresses them, however they seem to do well and acclimatise if they get on well then should be fine I have see these fish kept together in tanks where they have been that way for years and the fish were fine healthy and happy.

here is an extract from this article http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/hardness.php

Fish health and water hardness:

Different species of fish have varied water hardness requirements, so it is important to find out what hardness is best for your fish, For most pond fish, i.e. koi and goldfish, moderate to hard water is best. From table 1 above we can see that the optimum hardness range for most pond fish would be between 100 - 300 mg/litre CaCO3

Water hardness affects fish health because it influences osmoregulation. Being open systems, fish are affected by the makeup of the surrounding water. As a consequence of osmosis, freshwater fish are subject to a continuous influx of water, while marine fish have to live with a continuous outflow of water.

Against this continuous movement of water into or out of the body, fish have to maintain a constant internal body fluid concentration – a process called osmoregulation. The greater the difference in concentration between the fish’s body fluids and the surrounding water – the greater the osmotic effect. As hard water is more concentrated than soft, there will be less difference and therefore less water influx and consequently the fish will not have to work so hard at osmoregulation. This is particularly important in cases of bacterial ulceration where water can flood into open tissues.

[David R]

there should be no problems. pH maybe but im sure he will acclimatise just fine :bounce:

Contrary to popular belief, african cichlids will not drop dead if the pH goes below 8. There's many people keeping big healthy frontosa in with all sorts of other big fish on MFK, in "normal" water. I'd suggest running the pH around 7.2-7.5 and everyone should be happy, and the only real problem will be that nagging thought in the back of your head that the sev would look much better with some earth eaters than with mbuna....

[phoenix44]

Contrary to popular belief, african cichlids will not drop dead if the pH goes below 8. There's many people keeping big healthy frontosa in with all sorts of other big fish on MFK, in "normal" water. I'd suggest running the pH around 7.2-7.5 and everyone should be happy, and the only real problem will be that nagging thought in the back of your head that the sev would look much better with some earth eaters than with mbuna....

yes i know. as i remember my african tank sat at pH5.5 at one stage and the fish were happy as larry.

now it sits at 7 - 7.5 and the fish are still happy.