Agresion help me reconsider my stock please

[vantgE]

I have four pseudotropheus elongatus of questionable sex, five johani, 2 of questionable sex(one is blue but a metalic type with yellow at the edge of it's fins but is quite large, thinking just dominant female, and the other is mostly blue and black but the black seems slightly brown and the blue is more metalic colored as well, it is the third largest and not dominant at all), and five maylandia lombardoi, 2 male(obviouse problem working on it), , two female, and a baby, and one yellow lab(seems to be doing okay but the kennyi seem to think it's orange like them)
The biggest problem is with the elongatus I tried sexing them but obviiously didn't work it seems out of behavior that I have three males one female, if this hypothesis is correct will the removal of the female stop further agresion amongst them?
Considering adding one more species group of four to increase crowding but not sure?
Still intrested in adding syno's anyone know if this will be a problem becasue there won't be a lot of hideing places for them becasue the tank is pretty full of rock and most hidey holes are taken, i can grow nthem out abit in a 60 gallon for the summer too
Any other suggestions?

Thankyou

 

[Ferris]

Wow, some pretty agressive fish there. Johanni's and Elongatus tend to be agressive towards each other because of their similar appearance, that said, I have 1 of each and they just avoid each other. Lombardoi's are also at the high end when it comes to aggresion. They are all great fish though and I like your combination and if its working OK, why not!

I don't think removing the female elongatus will help much, its just that you have too many males together competing to be top dog (err..... i mean fish)

To add another species, they need to be able to hold their own. Any of the Zebra morphs should be OK or Maylandia Estherae. The Estherae or Orange Blotch Zebra's would make a nice contrast.

Syno's will want a cave or at least some form of cover/hiding place. They are not particularly shy but do need a place they can retreat to if neccessary.

Hope this helps!

 

[freddyk]

Instead of adding another species, why not get your Lab some friends?

 

[vantgE]

The male lombardoi don't seem to distinguish between each other and the yellow lab he takes a lot of agresion from them and another would probally get the same i don't like the idea.
So I can't do all male elongatus?

 

[freddyk]

Adding more labs will ease the aggression from the one you have. Otherwise I hope you'll remove the one taking the abuse now.

 

[vantgE]

Okay thanks I'll see what I can do