Suitable tank mates...

[SteveInEssex]

I have a pair of ciclids which I am having difficulty naming. With assistance from various people on here and LFS I have narrowed it down to a species from Lake Malawi and more than likely to be a Melanochromis variety. I have come across a few specimens that look similar but with different colours. These are Mel. Chipokae, Parallelus and Lepidiadaptes, later being the closest match. Now I would like a few recommendations for another pair of ciclids that are less aggressive but can possibly live with these.
Or would you advise not to keep any other? Please let me have any opinions or suggestions, thanks

 

[BigOh]

Tank size and type of filtration and type of aquascaping would come in handy here

 

[SteveInEssex]

The tank is five foot long, holding approx 90 UK Gallons. I have two filters, a secondary external eheim 2026 and a juwel 1300 built inside as my main filtration. I use silver sand instead of gravel and keep no plants. I have plenty of tunnels, tubes and pots for fish to hide.

 

[BigOh]

And those Melanochromis sp. are the only thing in the tank ?

 

[SteveInEssex]

No, I have a strange setup, lol, but it works!!! Most of the time. My tank community is as follows

2 Large Banded Leporinus( 10 and 8 inch )
3 Small banded leprinus (more viscious than large ones)
1 Silver shark (small)
1 RTB Shark (small)
Large Plec (sailfin. 12-13 inches)
Small Plec (unknown , has black and white stripes all over)
Large Clown Loach
Banded Loach
Unknown catfish
Baby Florida Gar, (My Fav)

and of course the two ciclids, still to be confirmed exactly what they are.

 

[SteveInEssex]

LFS have a tank full of lovely looking black finned pacu. They are about 3-4 inches in length. I am aware that these can get enormous, but how would you say they will fare with melanochromis?

 

[BigOh]

Species of the genus Melanochromis can be highly aggressive. Not a very good community type fish and can cause headaches even when mixed w/ similarly aggressive African Rift Lake fish. It is often recommended to keep only one male and at least 5 females w/ aggressive Melanochromis like chipokae and auratus.

My personal advice is to pass on them and maybe even to pass on African cichlids in your setup.

But to each their own

Even better would be to remove all your other fish and just go cichlids

 

[SteveInEssex]

They are OK in the tank at present, and the largest leporinus has them beat at the moment. They seem to like picking on my Gar but they have found out he has nasty teeth, so i think they may start to leave him alone. They are fine with the smaller sharks, but all the fish in my tank are capable of growing big, its not really a community setup as such. What about the Pacu's any knowledge on them?

 

[BigOh]

I really dont know much about SA/CA cichlids. However I think I've read that Pacu's can get upwards of 24" or something crazy like that.

 

[rus]

pacus get really big and are not suited for anything under 200 gal tank IMHO