Pelvicachromis pulcher

[nickyc]

Fish numbers in my main tank are starting to dwindle, in part due to old age, but also due to my angels who got a bit peckish while I was on holiday

I've been trying to decide what fish to introduce, but am struggling to make up my mind, and to work out what would be compatible. I've currently got 4 medium sized angels (growing fast), half a dozen WCMM (the rest got scoffed), a couple of other quite old fairly docile community fish, a couple of SAEs, a plec and various corydoras.

My current thinking is to introduce a couple of pelvicachromis pulcher, but I'm not sure how well they'd get on with my angels?! My tanks is 180l so I'm guessing I could only have 1 pair. Temprament wise I'm also a bit concerned that they might clash.

I need to think of something though before my tank ends up being plants only!! I was also looking at blue emperor tetras but I'm worried they'd end up being angel food. All the fish I'm drawn to seem to be snack size! Am starting to regret putting the angels in 🙁 What other ideas has anyone got? I know it's all a matter of personal taste, but I could do with a bit of inspiration!

 

[Thomas McMillan]

I was researching Kribs a couple of weeks ago as a possibillity for one of my tanks. From what I gathered, they are very aggresive as a pair, especially when spawning and protecting fry (which is inevitable because they are very easily bred). By the sounds of it you have too many fish for them to be comfortable and they wouldn't agree with your cories because they are bottom-dwellers. Also, generally spearking I don't think you should mix American and Africans.

With Angelfish, anything under about 5cm is considered food from what I know.

Hope this helped.

 

[Ed Seeley]

Kribs, or any of the other smaller Pelvicachromis species will be fine in your tank. What many people read as aggression is simply a territorial instinct to have a space to raise their young without them getting eaten. They need about 18" to 2ft diameter as a territory. I've bred many Pelvicachromis in 2ft tanks and also in 3ft tanks. Your 180l tank will allow plenty of room for the other fish, especially if you give them a cave right at one end of the tank which hopefully they will choose to breed in. They will chase the catfish away but in a well planted 3ft there should be room for them to get out of the way.
I have a pair of Pelvicachromis suboccelatus 'Matadi' that breed in a 3ft tank with 10 corydoras, a shoal of Congo tetras and a pair of wild Angelfish. There is very little aggression between the Pelvicachromis and angels as the angels stay above the pelvics most of the time.

Angelfish will be fine with any fish from adult cardinal tetras upwards IME. It's small young fish that often fall prey, expecially when they are added at the top of the tank like the food we add for the fish. If you want fish that are totally safe from being eaten then adding larger tetras, barbs, rasboras or rainbowfish is a good idea as they will be fairly large even when you add them as partly grown juveniles.

Mixing fish from different parts of the world is fine. What you shouldn't do, IMO, is mix fish from radically different water conditions. Pelvicachromis are West African riverine fish from soft, slightly acidic water, like much of that in South America so they will mix very well indeed. When most people hear 'African cichlid' they think of those from the East African rift lakes that need very hard alkaline water. It would be a bad idea to mix these with angelfish unless you were keeping angelfish in hard alkaline water (they are also too aggressive to mix well with the more docile angels).

 

[johnny70]

I agree with Ed, they will be fine, any aggression is them chasing other fish away, not ripping them 'limb from limb' or such like, I have had mine in a community tank for 6 months now, breeding every month or so, the only thing that is a pian is catching all the babies 😀

 

[GreenNeedle]

Should the WCMM not be in a tank closer to 22ºC? as they are colder water fish than the rest?

No experieince with them but that was the main reason I never bought any.

I have kept cichlids (Rams) with bottom dwellers like ED and there is no problem. They are largely ignored and at spawning time they are just persuaded to leave the area via small pecks and short charges.

Mine were small pitbull plecs and they would often get the "who the **** do you think you are" look before being ignored. lol

AC

 

[Garuf]

Yes in an ideal world the minnows should be kept cooler, there temperature range being 22-26 at the very max. This said modern minnows are much more adaptable than their wild cousins and can be kept with "normal" tropicals. Arana has a large shoal in his tank which he runs at 26c and they are extremely healthy fish.

 

[nickyc]

I think I'm persuaded! They sound like great little characters. Thanks all. Johnny - I may be back for advice on catching babies if I'm that lucky! Ed - reassuring to hear you've got a similar set up. Funnily enough I've been looking at congo tetras too 😀

Re the WCMMs - yes when I had them years ago, I didn't even need a heater [my mum's cosy warm house!] These were 'acquired' from a friend who got fed up with the responsiblity of water changes, but they have adapted just fine 🙂

 

[beeky]

I don't think WCMM are particularly long lived (a few years or so) so they may just have succumbed to old age.

What plec have you got? I'm assuming it's not the "common" plec which grow to a foot long? Some plec type fish (e.g. Ancistrus Bristlenose catfish) can get quite territorial and may clash with the kribs. I had a red tailed black shark which used to fight all the time with my ancistrus. Mind you, there's not much a large RTBS won't fight with.....

 

[nickyc]

Hi beeky,

I guess my WCMMs are probably getting on a bit, and maybe I've been a bit mean about my angels 😀 I drew that conclusion mainly because the bigger (and maybe older) ones are still there but the littler ones are gone. I have had them a fair while though and I got them second hand

I'm not sure what make and model the plec is. He's about 4 years old and no more than 4". I'll see if I can get a pic and post it for an ID. I won't be fish shopping this weekend in any case as we have a delightful weekend of DIY to look forward to Cheers for the advice though - I'll definately check him out before buying the kribs as he is quite bossy