Question:can i have an ornate bichir,fire eel, 2 king tiger plecos with african cichlids
? i have alot of rocks wood and hiding places along with swiming space
i have a 40 gallon ( the ornate bichir and fire eel are small i no they can get big)
how many african cichlids can i get ?
with no one killing or fighting eachother !
Answers:
yes ... i have all of those in my 20 gallon
Will i know if the ornate bichir gets to big it will out compete the fire eel and the fire eel will starve, bichirs eat anything that grazes their mouth, and if it gets bigger than the cichlids he might out compete them also.
I had this same problem with my bichir and arowana, the bichir would always eat the feeder guppies and the dried blood worms i would drop for the arowana, i solved it by buying crickets since the bichir wont accept it and the arowana would.
bichirs will need alot more room than a 40 gallon, but for now it should be fine.
While eels and plecos arent really for high ph levels that african cichlids need, they should be able to handle it.
I would expect your African Cichlids to last about 6mths before all you have left is the bichir and fire eel and the only reason the fire eel is surviving is because he can hide pretty well, I would suggest that if by African Cichlids your talking about Rift valley then your only going to be able to manage 2 or 3 species of Cichlid in the tank.
Your Bichir and Fire eel if he were to survive would out grow the tank within months.
This is of course apart from the fact that they come from differing water types, which while some people appear to say that they could cope, I would suggest that it would be uncomfortable and shorten there life span considerably.
AJ
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