My weirdly successful community tank

My living room community tank has become a hodgepodge of fish that really shouldn't be housed together. Somehow I've had no casualties or even noticable fin nipping despite having three 5 inch blue gouramis 3 small dwarf gouramis 3 small mbuna chiclids 5 black Mollys 15 white skirt tetras, a mix of striped and leopard tetras and celestial danios. Somewhere around 30 guppies, 10 Otos, 1-10 inch pleco and heres the kicker, 100 plus cherry shrimp that seem to doubling in number every week. All housed in a 160 gallon tank. Logically I know some of these fish should shred the others, and nearly all will eat cherry shrimp. Yet somehow all my fish have missed the memo that they can eat each other. I even have baby guppies survive to adulthood and a batch of the white skirt fry that dont seem to be dropping in number.
The mbuna cichlids seem my mostly likely candidate for future problems but I'm waiting till they are old enough to hold their own in my ciclid community tank. The next step is doing some aquascaping to pretty up the tank and run new filter lines

 

I have so many questions. But my main one is...

Why?

 

Sounds crazily like a stocking i did wayyyyyy back in the day that i wouldn't DREAM of trying now...sometimes it really is better to be lucky than good.

 

I have so many questions. But my main one is...

Why?

Some were from 2 tanks I broke down, some were given to me and I had no other tank to place them, the cherry shrimp started out from about 5 that had hitched a ride on a log, the black Molly's are there to eat clado algae that nothing else seems to eat

 

100 plus cherry shrimp! That's unreal You could make some money on the side by selling them locally

 

How long have the africans been in there?

 

Some were from 2 tanks I broke down, some were given to me and I had no other tank to place them, the cherry shrimp started out from about 5 that had hitched a ride on a log, the black Molly's are there to eat clado algae that nothing else seems to eat

The mbunas were fry that I managed to pull from my chiclid tank before they were eaten

How long have the africans been in there?

Since they were tiny fry so about 2 months

 

It’s weird that gouramis and mbunas are being housed together successfully, especially since they're on opposite ends of the ph spectrum.

 

It’s weird that gouramis and mbunas are being housed together successfully, especially since they're on opposite ends of the ph spectrum.

Imagine both tanks probably have about the same pH because assuming same source water. So that's actually probably the easiest think to explain.

 

If you manage to make it another few months without the cichlids killing everything else I'll be pretty shocked

 

I mix things that shouldn't be either and haven't had problems. Thats why stocking posts aggravate me. Its like do you know through experience owning the fish yourself and have tried it or are you basing the information on what people say and what you have read posted in other places.

 

I think the large size of the tank must be helping this to work...

 

If you manage to make it another few months without the cichlids killing everything else I'll be pretty shocked

Yeah I'm anticipating them getting violent soon, I'm planning on moving them back into the mbuna community when I go to re arrange it but I'm waiting till they get a little bigger so they dont end up food for the others

 

I have 2 zebra obliquidens in my 60 gallon community tank, only because they are too small for my 135 african cichlid tank.

As soon as they reach about 3" I will put them in the 135

 

I mix things that shouldn't be either and haven't had problems. Thats why stocking posts aggravate me. Its like do you know through experience owning the fish yourself and have tried it or are you basing the information on what people say and what you have read posted in other places.

Some baised on prior experience, some on what I've read, some just common sense, blue gouramis and mbuna ciclids will usually eat anything they can fit in their mouth but somehow these ones are content with fry swimming around them and shrimp under them

 

Imagine both tanks probably have about the same pH because assuming same source water. So that's actually probably the easiest think to explain.

That tank is usually at about a 7.5 ph

 

Some baised on prior experience, some on what I've read, some just common sense, blue gouramis and mbuna ciclids will usually eat anything they can fit in their mouth but somehow these ones are content with fry swimming around them and shrimp under them

Hope you didn't take my comment out of context, I agree with trying different things and not questioning your choices. Its a general comment about stocking approval posts.

To the others I apologize for starting a soap box about "stocking approval posts". As I know there will be alot of back and fourth on the topic.

 

So, are the DGs aggressive towards eachother? In smaller tanks I know they can hardly stand eachother. I'm curious to know if the tank size changes that

 

Hope you didn't take my comment out of context, I agree with trying different things and not questioning your choices. Its a general comment about stocking approval posts.

To the others I apologize for starting a soap box about "stocking approval posts". As I know there will be alot of back and fourth on the topic.

Lol i understood, and I do generally stick to generic stocking rules, this tank was more of an accidental stocking necessity. This post was more about my surprise that everything is actually working out even though it normally wouldnt
Btw my tanks not actually as green as my photos make it look lol dont know why my phones camera makes water so green looking

 

My mbuna days were short lived after they all started killing each other within the 1st week, i gave up on that particular type of cichlids lol. So I do get your surprise, as stated by other members i think your tank size probably helps the whole situation. Im scared to put shrimp with any fish but I do really want some.

 

My mbuna days were short lived after they all started killing each other within the 1st week, i gave up on that particular type of cichlids lol. So I do get your surprise, as stated by other members i think your tank size probably helps the whole situation. Im scared to put shrimp with any fish but I do really want some.

Other then this tank I've only had success housing cherries with platys, and otos. Even some neon tetras I had would pick at them till they died. They also seem to only thrive in black gravel with alot of cholla wood in it

So, are the DGs aggressive towards eachother? In smaller tanks I know they can hardly stand eachother. I'm curious to know if the tank size changes that

I've not seen any aggression from any of the gouramis, I was initially worried the blues would attack the dwarfs but so far they all get along

 

I wish you luck! I had mbunas happily together in community until they hit 8–10 months old. Then no more. Best of luck and that’s awesome!

 

I understand. There’s been some things that I’ve done in the hobby that shouldn’t be possible, but work fine. That’s one of the toughest things about this hobby... there are very little rules that are constant, and everything is relative.

 

Wow, my mind is blown upon seeing that stocking. You might literally be THE luckiest fish keeper on earth.

 

I understand. There’s been some things that I’ve done in the hobby that shouldn’t be possible, but work fine. That’s one of the toughest things about this hobby... there are very little rules that are constant, and everything is relative.

I think a lot of the hobby is just luck. Sometimes, like in this case, extreme luck.