Which African Cat Fits the Build?

[nvcichlids]

My wife wants me to get another tanganyikan cichlid set up going again. I want to showcase for cichlid cyprichomis and telmatochromis species. I have been rattling my brain as to which african catfish would best fit in with these fish? I would prefer that the catfish can breed in the tank as well, so I was REALLY HOPING to add my new group of

Phyllonemus typus

or

Lophiobagrus brevispinis

. The P.typus would be F1's at about 1.5" and the L.brevispinis are wildcaught at 2-3".

So for the experts, which do you feel would be a better fit? I really don't want to keep synos as I have done that and am trying new things after successful breeding of species.

[sidguppy]

both cats fit the bill!

Telmatochromis is definitely one of the more mellow bottomdwelling cichlid species.

the only drawback is: how small or big are the cichlids?
Phyllonemus is a stealth hunter capable of feeding on fish up to 1.5" when mature.

but if the Cyps and the Telmatochromis are mature or halfgrown and the typus are still that small; it's a good match

Lophiobagrus rarely eats fish, unless they're very small and resting on the bottom.

as far as looks go; Phyllonemus is a far better looking catfish IMO, but both species are nice.
if the tanks' floorspace is large enough you can combbine both; they don't fight at all when there are enough hiding places.

[Richard B]

Sid puts it well - either would do the job

[nvcichlids]

The cyps will be 2" long (friend breeds them) and the telmatochromis are 1.5", so I don't know if they would pose a threat with the young (1-1.5") P.typus. I did get 6 typus reserved today and will be picked up later this month/early next month. I am selling 3 pleco groups as well to foot the bill for when I go to order the lophio and order my cich lids in.

Also, is it dangerous to have sea shells in a tank with either of these ,as in, will they go in and get stuck?

[sidguppy]

Lophiobagrus brevispinis hides and even breeds in sea shells, if they're large enough

phyllonemus likes horizontal caves much better and for example will do fine with "pleco caves"; the terracotta contraptions sold by many to breed L46 or Peckoltia's.

[nvcichlids]

Thanks for that. I am udderly afraid that one would get stuck in the shell. I had lost pleco fry (201's) in shells in a tang tank about 10 years ago.

As far as your experience, do you feel that they would mix well at all with the west african species Benitochromis either eski or nigrodorsalis?

[sidguppy]

no, that's not a good mix at all

I was assuming you'd put them in a Tanganyikan set up; with hard water and a pH of about 8.

Benitochromis is a soft water cichlid. it will slowly die and develop all kinds of nasty flagellates like head-hole disease (hexamita) when kept at a pH that's too high.
the fact that it's also from Africa doesn't count at all, cause West and central Africa are biotopes like Amazon South America.
rainforests with neutral to very acidic and extremely soft water. often the amount of minerals can't even be measured like in the biotope of Nanochromis.

the Rift Valley is very much different from that.
apart from lava and granite the East African Rift contains a LOT of lime.
it's much like Yucatan, and from Yucatan originate other hard alcalic fishes like the fishes from the cenotes; Herichthys, Poecilia etc.

it's better on the Rift catfish to be kept with Poecilidae in hard water than to be mixed with West Africans.

[nvcichlids]

Well thats where I have a problem, I listened to a west african cich lid speaker who went collecting there and he collected his in ph of 7.8 ( and the book/paper I had been reading up on stated they are from the low 6's pH to upper 5's... so the info was contradicting to say the least lol), which my tang set ups are all 8.5 ph, so didn't know if he collected in such high pH, if they would still be stable. I will scratch them and just set up a west african tank (like the wood more anyways lol....) and add some microsyno's instead.

Thanks so much