My cichlids arent acting right.

As you guys know i have a 40g breeder with lots of shells and 3 Neolamprologus similis. I dont know the genders of the fish but i think i have 2 males and 1 female.

The problem is that they are not acting right! They are supposed to be very very territorial and will defend their shell with "real venom". This is not happening.

They hang out together and rarely ever snap at each other.

There are only a few signs of what i think is mating behavior. Sometimes one of the males will go near the female's shell and they will rub against each other a little and then the male swims away. During this, their eyes get almost fully black.

Is this mating behavior? I have no idea.

I'll take a guess and say they are still very young.

I haven't kept shell dwellers - my water is soft and my interests lie elsewhere. But I have had Tanganyikan tanks, and what you describe sounds like young fish still hanging out, having fun, and not feeling too venomous about each other. You have a forty? I wonder what size tank the person you read used. That can make for some venom, if the tank was too small. It used to be the fashion to keep shell dwellers in tanks I would never use, because they were too small. The explanation could be in that direction too.
Could. I haven't kept the group to confirm.

GaryE said:

That can make for some venom, if the tank was too small. It used to be the fashion to keep shell dwellers in tanks I would never use, because they were too small. The explanation could be in that direction too.
Could. I haven't kept the group to confirm.

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The people that said "real venom" was seriouslyfish.com. They say to keep the fish in a large tank. It could it be that the aggression is not present due plenty of space in the tank.

video of the fish?

shell dweller cichlids normally live in family groups and are quite happy with other family members for the most part. The aggression is normally during breeding and when unrelated fish come into the territory.

Colin_T said:

shell dweller cichlids normally live in family groups and are quite happy with other family members for the most part. The aggression is normally during breeding and when unrelated fish come into the territory.

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Yep this, multis and similis are known for their family bonds, as the colony builds you will see parents raising the youngest fry and other generations raising slightly older. Its only outsiders that are attacked.

Wills

I bred Neolamprolus marunguensis for a long long time, just to watch the social group in action. They aren't shell dwellers, but are very similar in behaviour. I found them very aggressive when young males reached adulthood and didn't swim off to form new colonies. At a point, when the fish were about a year old, I had to move them out out the group. But the sibling groups were great together, and broods grew and took care of incoming broods. It was a great show from a beautiful species - something every aquarist should see.

I forgot about the family issue - they knew their own DNA from that of others. Maybe yours are closely related.