Cichlid Behaviour

[Zhoo]

Hi all,

I'm new to all this. I used to babysit a grown-up cichlid and got quite attached to him. That's how I decided to start my own cichlid project.

I hope you can give me some insight on what some of their behavior means...for instance, what does it mean when two fish lock their mouths and start twisting and pulling? Are they fighting? I started with a Cobalt blue and a few smaller fishes; the cobalt was the biggest fish in the tank, and later added a Turquoise Jewel who was slightly bigger. They started locking mouths right away, but stopped shortly afterwards and are not bothering each other anymore.

Another thing is, they eat like pigs!!! They won't stop until I can clearly see a big stuffed round belly. Not that I feed them that much but just as a means to illustrate Anything that gets dropped into the tank gets picked up right away, and my bottom feeders are not too happy about it. I have an albino shark and a clown loach. The Kribs couple isn't too happy either, since they are too gentle to compete for food with the rest of the crowd.
Do you guys know of a way to keep everyone in the tank happy and fed?

 

[Gilli]

Lip locking can be fighting for dominance or if it is between a male and female of the same breed the female does it to test the males strenght.

For the feeding with your flake food put a little of the tank water in an egg cup add the flake swish around then add to the tank. You will find it sinks immediately. This way if you do that plus add some without wetting some will stay at the top keeping some fish busy while some sinks for the bottom feeders. Also spread it around your tank dont feed all in one place - the greedy fish cant be in 2 places at once so others will get a chance!