Malawi with Tangs

[KarEn]

I have a nice Tanganyika tank, but wanted to add some more colors to it... yellow labs for example.
I know most of you would say don't mix tangs and malawians, but i've seen mixes in many houses where people been in the hobby for over 30 years.
So... i would appreciate if anyone would share his/her opinion here.


Happy Holidays to everyone!

[darkdep]

There are no real technical reasons you can't mix.  Some purists do, with the arguments that the fish would never meet in real life. 

The only concern I would see is if you are conditioning your water to true Tanganyikan levels; and even then it's a very small concern.    Tanganyikan water is much harder and more complex than Malawi.  But again, most people aren't going to such extremes with their water, and Africans are extremely adaptable (especially domestic raised) so it's only a very small concern

[pegasus]

If my angels can breed in my African tanks I don't see why Tangs can't mix with Malawi.

In their own environment, they encounter different water parameters everyday as they moved from slow moving waters of the shore to their feeding grounds. Water parameters for the Lakes are averages and are pass to us only to justify success or death.
I don't know my PH or the hardness of my tanks and frankly I don't care. I loose them to aggression or to faulty equipment not from bad water quality, disease or nutrition. Just be prepare to remix or to rearrange your tanks if the aggression gets to be too much.

[Adam]

I think what is more important is not the pH level, but a constant pH level.  Same goes for hardness.  If it is always the same, great...but when you have it start swinging around, it can really mess up your fish.   I also don't know the pH levels or the hardness of my tanks atm, and I don't care either.

Malawi and tang would be fine.  Yellow labs are omnivores, so they could eat the high protein diet of a Tanganyikan community.  It's when you get into other mbuna with tangs that their diets wouldn't match.  If you want yellow, why not a pair of yellow compressiceps or leleupi 'firecracker'?  These are easily found on the website from SteveOOO or mgillie (mglillie?).

As long as a fish eats the same diet, lives in the same type of environment, and isn't on the opposite end of the pH scale (read 4.5 (discus) ph vs. 9.1 (some parts of Tanganyika), and is compatible with the other fish, it should be ok. 

Adam

[beowulf]

I think what is more important is not the pH level, but a constant pH level.  Same goes for hardness.  If it is always the same, great...but when you have it start swinging around, it can really mess up your fish.   I also don't know the pH levels or the hardness of my tanks atm, and I don't care either.

Malawi and tang would be fine.  Yellow labs are omnivores, so they could eat the high protein diet of a Tanganyikan community.  It's when you get into other mbuna with tangs that their diets wouldn't match.  If you want yellow, why not a pair of yellow compressiceps or leleupi 'firecracker'?  These are easily found on the website from SteveOOO or mgillie (mglillie?).

As long as a fish eats the same diet, lives in the same type of environment, and isn't on the opposite end of the pH scale (read 4.5 (discus) ph vs. 9.1 (some parts of Tanganyika), and is compatible with the other fish, it should be ok. 

Adam

Totally agree, as long as the water parameters stay constant you should have no problem at all. 

[bitterman]

I have Yellow labs with my Calvus, syno multis and fronts. They breed like crazy too. My only compaint is the are nippy and more agressive then my other fish. The fronts acting like cops protecting the fmeal labs when the male getts into breeding mode.

My water is in my tank at about 9.1 and they seam fine at that ph. The labs were a test to see if I could do a malawi tank, everything is good so I'm setting up a 65 Corner tank to be a malawai mbuma tank.

Bruce.

[Sue]

I mix tangs and Malawi and don't see any problems, and I'm one of those people who's kept African's for  way too many years.  Most African's are really hardy fish. I don't alter the water from Ottawa tap water so the differences between the two lakes doesn't matter to me.  I feed them all a diet with a fair bit of veg content, but I don't worry about mixing species by diet either. I had a show male H. ahli (piscivore) in with dubiosi for quite a few years, and they all did just fine. 

That being said, I think Karen might have Tropheus. Thats one Tang I wouldn't mix with any Malawi mbuna, because you don't want some cheap mbuna getting bloat or even carrying bloat with no symptoms and giving it to your tropheus. Bloat  is tropheus's  Achilles heel and must be avoided! There's lots of beautiful non-mbuna Malawi's (like Peacocks) that I have mixed with Tropheus though.

[Adam]

That being said, I think Karen might have Tropheus. Thats one Tang I wouldn't mix with any Malawi mbuna, because you don't want some cheap mbuna getting bloat or even carrying bloat with no symptoms and giving it to your tropheus. Bloat  is tropheus's  Achilles heel and must be avoided! There's lots of beautiful non-mbuna Malawi's (like Peacocks) that I have mixed with Tropheus though.

I don't think bloat is contagious...it's a result of a too high protein diet in fish with a long, easily plugged gastrointestinal tract.  If anything, mbuna and tropheus have the exact same vegetable diet and would do a lot better together.  Haps/peacocks are piscivores/carnivores, and I would definitely separate the two acording to diet.  That's just asking for bloat.

Adam

[darkdep]

There are exceptions to pretty much every "rule" with Africans...part of the reason keeping them is so interesting.

In general, Mbuna should be fed a herbivorous diet, but there are exceptions.  Yellow Labs, for example, are more omnivorous than most Mbuna and will do well on a diet with a good deal of protein.

[KarEn]

Sue, I don't have Tropheus. I got Calvuses, Frontosas and some hmmm..... i forgot....  whatever they are, but Tropheus.

[cory]

I have labs, C. Moori, and a Yellow Jake in with my Frontosa. I get the odd tuffle...but Nothing serious! Breed those Calvus KarEn! i need some!