# Aggressive chichlids



## kodakkuki (Aug 8, 2011)

This is about my dads tank... It's a huge tank that has about 8 chichlids in it along with 2 pleco and until this week 2 very large tetras. I was down at his house today fishing out a baby to move to a nursery tank and noticed his remaining terra wasn't looking good- on closer inspection I noticed it was missing an eye and badly injured underneath so my dad then 'pts'. Thought he was going to cry  .
I'm assuming it is one of the males that attacked the others- and am also thinking that there may only be 2 females in the shoal... Is that the problem?
The tetra that died today was my dads oldest and favourite dish- he came 'this' close to flushing the big C male alive!
We got the chichlids of scumtree ftgh- 1st come, or they get flushed kinda thing  so dad took them being told they were adults and all female (though they must have been very young juveniles). 
Wha do we do? Rehome some of the males? What is the least stressful way of sexing them? Or should we ask in maidenhead for them to sex them? (I know a few of the staff and they are excellent at all things fishy!)


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## labradrk (Dec 10, 2012)

What kind of cichlids are they?


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## Dan1234 (Dec 3, 2012)

I would echo Labradrk. Without knowing tank size and what fish they are by way of pics etc then its almost impossible to give sound advice. Cichlid's are a extremely large group, giving that you had tetra's of some sort in there I would hazard a guess that you have either central or south american Cichlid's.


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## kodakkuki (Aug 8, 2011)

Dan1234 said:


> I would echo Labradrk. Without knowing tank size and what fish they are by way of pics etc then its almost impossible to give sound advice. Cichlid's are a extremely large group, giving that you had tetra's of some sort in there I would hazard a guess that you have either central or south american Cichlid's.


 
I knew that- no idea why I didn't add pics!
I'll get some later when I'm down at his!


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## kodakkuki (Aug 8, 2011)

The tank...









The fish... Apologies for the quality!


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## labradrk (Dec 10, 2012)

I'm on my phone so can't see the pictures too clearly, but the striped one looks like a convict cichlid and the yellow ones look like yellow labs? If those are yellow labs then they need to be in a species only tank with other mbuna cichlids. They won't mix with anything else.


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## labradrk (Dec 10, 2012)

Just looked at the stripey ones and could be demansonis in which case they'll mix with the labs but not the tetras. Can't be 100% while on my phone though.


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## kodakkuki (Aug 8, 2011)

But they all started out the same solid yellow colour- it's only to past month that they've began to change


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## labradrk (Dec 10, 2012)

Right I'm on my laptop and it's definitely mbuna cichlids you've got there. They are very much a a species only fish, so mbuna can only be kept with mbuna (with a couple of exceptions). I'm surprised the tetras survived at all to be honest!

What size is that tank? in litres? for mbuna not to want to eat each other you need to overstock the tank but you can only do this if you have a decent sized tank and filter in the first place. 8 fish definitely isn't enough. I'd be looking at 200 litres if the tank isn't that already and removing the hang on the filter and putting an external on there which will be necessary to handle the increased waste load.


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## kodakkuki (Aug 8, 2011)

labradrk said:


> Right I'm on my laptop and it's definitely mbuna cichlids you've got there. They are very much a a species only fish, so mbuna can only be kept with mbuna (with a couple of exceptions). I'm surprised the tetras survived at all to be honest!
> 
> What size is that tank? in litres? for mbuna not to want to eat each other you need to overstock the tank but you can only do this if you have a decent sized tank and filter in the first place. 8 fish definitely isn't enough. I'd be looking at 200 litres if the tank isn't that already and removing the hang on the filter and putting an external on there which will be necessary to handle the increased waste load.


I think it's at least a 250L tank... And not sure if he wants to keep them knowing they can't e kept with others (he wanted a community type tank in the hall- and no space for an external filter :/ ) 
What would be the best route to go down with rehoming them to someone who knows what they're doing? Via a fish shop? I don't have anywhere close to the size tank they need to take them myself- who h is annoying as they are fascinating fish!


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## labradrk (Dec 10, 2012)

kodakkuki said:


> I think it's at least a 250L tank... And not sure if he wants to keep them knowing they can't e kept with others (he wanted a community type tank in the hall- and no space for an external filter :/ )
> What would be the best route to go down with rehoming them to someone who knows what they're doing? Via a fish shop? I don't have anywhere close to the size tank they need to take them myself- who h is annoying as they are fascinating fish!


Rehoming is probably for the best if he can't/won't redo their set up. They are rock cichlids so they do need some sort of rockery in there to break up the space in the tank. If you Google mbuna tanks you'll see what I mean.

But yes, try an aquatics shop. Some rehome fish, some don't. Ring around and see.


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## kodakkuki (Aug 8, 2011)

i do hate the thought of them being in the wrong setup  and there are even 2 babies in a nursery tank! hopefully if they've been breeding though then they can't be too stressed out? 
so upset i can't keep them- they're beautiful and fascinating fish (the more i read up on them the more i want some **some day**.


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## Dan1234 (Dec 3, 2012)

Looks like you have a mixture of Yellow Labs and Saulosi in that tank. The ones that have turned blue/black are Saulosi males. They all start yellow and change to that colour when reaching maturity. 
Its quite likely the larger Yellow fish with the black bars on their fins are labs, and the ones that are full yellow and likely smaller are Saulosi females. Its difficult to tell though as some yellow labs can also be completely yellow. Saulosi are usually smaller though so you can possibly tell that way.

250 litres is what I would class as a regular Mbuna sized tank, usually you want to be aiming for 3 females per 1 male when it comes to Mbuna. Some of the more aggressive species (which yours aren't and that's probably how you have gotten away with the tetras for any length of time) need bigger ratios.

Its up to you really, if the Tetra has survived this long you may get lucky, however apart from temperament issues they also require different water parameters (tetras usually prefering lower PH while African's prefer towards the 8 mark) and also different diet. Mbuna are generally vegetarians and tetra's generally more omnivorous/carnivorous. The plec's are normally a little more adaptable but again depending on what type they are they may outgrow your 250 litre tank.


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## kodakkuki (Aug 8, 2011)

Dan1234 said:


> * Looks like you have a mixture of Yellow Labs and Saulosi in that tank. The ones that have turned blue/black are Saulosi males. They all start yellow and change to that colour when reaching maturity.
> Its quite likely the larger Yellow fish with the black bars on their fins are labs, and the ones that are full yellow and likely smaller are Saulosi females. Its difficult to tell though as some yellow labs can also be completely yellow. Saulosi are usually smaller though so you can possibly tell that way.*
> 
> 250 litres is what I would class as a regular Mbuna sized tank, usually you want to be aiming for 3 females per 1 male when it comes to Mbuna. Some of the more aggressive species (which yours aren't and that's probably how you have gotten away with the tetras for any length of time) need bigger ratios.
> ...


they all started out completely identical- only getting other colour in the past months- including the dark finned ones- which is what the striped boy did before fully changing... the smaller ones are the size the larger ones were when he got them, and the smaller ones were pretty tiny- not much bigger than his larger tetras were.

as i say, i don't think he wants to keep them either way- having to help one of his favourite fish ever under the bridge was too much for him to ever like this group ever again (he's a big softy bless).


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