Don’t mix them!!! Your community fish will get killed. I keep African Chichlids and they are pretty feisty fish.

And I didn’t intend to have a breeding pair but I do… They are doing just fine with pebbles, I would suggest getting a breeding area (available at just about any pet store) so the babies don’t get killed.

I have found if you purchase the fish for the community tank when they are juveniles they all have a better chance at surviving. Convicts, Jack Dempsey’s and Fire mouth Meeki’s seem to get along well.

Hi,
It depends what type of cichlids as things such as dwarf cichlids will be fine but other cichlids won’t and will kill your fish.

As for breeding them i just use very fine pea shingle and the cichlids just put it in their mouths and move it, gives you something to watch as well. One problem about sand is that i have seen it in tanks and it takes days to settle and just the movement of the fish or filter will stir it up again so your tank will probably be cloudy a lot.

Yes you can, but only specific types of cichlids. Dwarf cichlids like Rams, Kribinis’, Keyhole cichlids are best and can be kept in a community fish set up depending on off course what fish you already keep. I would not attempt to keep Convicts or any that will get rather large. Although saying that I have kept a Blue Acara with community fish like Rainbow fish, Tetras and Chery Barbs with no harm coming to any of them. When breeding most cichlids you don’t need sand as most of them will polish and breed on slat or large pebbles, while others will find a cave or dig themselves a pit, so the substrate doesn’t really matter. Do not try to keep Malawi cichlids though as these as mentioned above are quite aggressive and will grow to 5 inches plus. Good luck.

You know many people just see the word cichlid and jump right to anecdotal information that is quite as misleading as the 1 inch of fish per gallon concept.

The FACT of the matter is YES you can. However, it’s not as much a matter of the type of fish as it’s simply a matter of now much of a footprint you have. So people saying no way you can’t do this are saying that in Lake Malawi, Tangyanika, and Victoria have NO non cichlids at all? They better go check that out.

The types vary as to the size of your footprint. Keep in mind you group them or stock your tank by preferred levels of dwelling. Africans that are Mbuna and substrate types can work very well with mid to upper level dwelling fish of most any kind. I keep Mollies, Platties, Loaches, Catfish, including Cories, Gourami, and Botia’s all in with my Africans with very little deaths of the non cichlids involved. It’s not as hard or impossible as some would lead you to believe.

Do they need a sand substrate? No not unless maybe you’re into the Tangyanikans. These are the ones I’ve seen typically prefer the sand, but it’s not a necessity. It’s more of nice if you can, but gravel will function just as well. So again, with your grouping, it it basically dicateted by your tank footprint really. I’m not telling you if you have a large tank, some of those community fish won’t die. It might happen on a very small scale as noone can predict the temperment of any one fish. You always have a chance you’ll get a very hyper or aggressive substrate dweller that likes to go higher in the tank, or an upper level community type that dares to be on the bottom. You just will have significantly less deaths or bad experiences if you have a larger tank footprint so YES this can be done.

no because they can be agressive and will either eat or kill your community fish,you should keep all ciclids together but check how agressive they are first.we have 2 parrot fish.2 blue joannis who have had babies.2 frontosa.2 yellow labs,3 blue dolphins,3 red tops some clown loaches and a big bottom feeder and algae eater whos name escapes me.