New to cichlid keeping

[Fish Dude]

Hi all, i am new to cichlid keeping and need to know a few things off you cichlid fanatics:

1. Can i keep one of the smaller julidochromis with a Lemon cichlid (lamprologus leleupi) together in a 18"x10"x10" tank with a pH of between 7.5-8.0pH, or do you need to keep these fish in groups or pairs?

2. Any comments, tips and advice is welcomed so fire away!

Thanks... :?

[SGypsyMermaid]

hi fish dude! i think that you can get away with it if you include some small dither fish to keep the 2 cichlids from concentrating on each other.

[Fish Dude]

Any suggestions for dither fish with these two?

[SGypsyMermaid]

jonah ands finz have had success with zebra danios.

[Scotty]

Rainbowfish also work well with Africans and are quite colorful. Don't get small delicate rainbows like threadfins though. Red Rainbows, Bosemans and other robust bodied species are a good choice.

[jonah]

I'd lean towards the zebra danios because of the tank size. I don't know much about rainbowfish, but danios are pretty close to indestructable and they don't need a very big tank. They're also extremely active no matter what's going on in the tank.

One more plus, danios are extremely cheap and easy to find.

[Fish Dude]

Tanks everyone, I will try some danios then i reckon unless there are any other nice african cichlids i could keepp in this tank?

[SGypsyMermaid]

that tank is really too small for african cichlids--they need a lot of territory, and most of them get too large for a tank of that size.

[Pittsie]

For a tank that small (<10G), I'd recommend shell dwellers. The link below explains them in more detail.

http://www.cichlidrecipe.com/shellweb/

If you're set on julies and leleupi, a 20L would be fine for a group of smaller julies (transcriptus, dickfeldi, ornatus) or a pair of leleupi.