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Hippo get teeth cleaned by Malawi cichlids

My friend and I went to the San Antonio zoo last week, and the best
thing there was the huge tank with hundreds of large mbuna, peacocks and haps, and there tank-mates, two hippos.

SAzoo4swimminwiththehippos.png



One of them opened its mouth, and the cichlids swarmed in to pick his teeth!
SAzoo3hippoteethcleaning.png
 

DiscusnAfricans

Past President
Great shots! Really neat example of a mutually beneficial relationship. Do hippos inhabit Lake Malawi or its surrounding tributaries?
 

illpoet

Members
not sure about lake malawi but i remember Mr. Kent talking about how a hippo had killed one of the locals in the lake victoria/gordon area. still that is a really cool tank. i wonder if there'll be any hippo's at the aca auction...
 

Tony

Alligator Snapping Turtle/Past Pres
Great pictures!

I remember seeing this on one of those Discovery shows - Planet Earth maybe.

Think they have native carp that survive by eating the grass that the hippos um... "bring" into the water with them. Without the hippos, they would starve.
 
Ha, about the carp...there were some large carp-looking fish that I couldn't identify...
and there was some ah-hem...grass...deposited in the water.
 

verbal

CCA Members
not sure about lake malawi but i remember Mr. Kent talking about how a hippo had killed one of the locals in the lake victoria/gordon area. still that is a really cool tank. i wonder if there'll be any hippo's at the aca auction...

It looks like hippos do live in Lake Malawi:
http://www.guideforafrica.com/malawi/lake-malawi-guide.html

As for the ACA auction it looks like it will be a Cichlid-only auction, so I doubt a hippo would qualify :)
 
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