Cichlid Charging All Other Fish.

[electric yellow]

I really need some advice. The aggression being shown by one of my johannis is ridiculous. Im so terrified hes going to kill my other fish. I have an assorted Cichlid tank and they have all been together for over a year now (i know people dont lime mixing african with sth americans etc but its worked fine for me for ages) but he is so angry that he is ramming my convicts and all of the other cichlids are hiding in one corner. He literally charges across the tank at them!

They are in a 3ft bow front tank which is quite deep and ther eis adequate spacing. The stocking is this:
1x electric yellow 2yrs old
1x electric yellow 1yr old
2x electric blue female 1yr old
2x johannis 2yrs old (im assuming 1male 1 female because they are paired)
4x convicts
2x yellow tail acies

I really dont know what to do with him because he is so angry. He has never been like this before. I am doing a water change today and splitting the ship wreck in half so one side is down each half of the tank and putting plants in the middle as a barrier but i dont know what else to do!

Is it a phase and will he calm down? Hes a large fish. Id say about 10cms. My other johanni seems oblivious to whats going. Shes just swimming around on her own.

This is a pic of the tank 2yrs ago when i got it so you can see the size..

Its not to small for them as we dont plan to add more and havent added any new fish for over a yr.

 

[kribensis12]

Probably getting ready to breed. Im unsure. Johanni's can be agressive though.

 

[electric yellow]

Yeah i thought he may just be full of testosterone....but im unsure...im hoping with the tank being rearranged it may help....

Then ive had a boy and girl since i got them and not once have the bred....

 

[kj23502]

In my opinion get rid of the convicts, johanni and then up your numbers of the other fish. Johanni's NEED lots of females to breed with and lots of room to stake a claim. Johanni's don't pair. They are harem breeders.

Convicts will/can get just as nasty when they start breeding. This is a bad combination, IMO.

*I can tell you that 3ft is most certainly to small for Johanni b/c of temperament. Also there's not enough space for other fish to run to when they're trying to avoid him.

 

[pippoodle]

if you want to keep the fish and try and cut down the aggression - add lots more plants and see if that helps - he might be able to get a territory set up easier in a heavilly planted tank and also the other fish will have more places to hide
definately try the lots of plants route , putting plants around the ,middle sides and back of the tank - to make some hidey holes for the other fish

 

[kj23502]

a 3ft tank isn't big enough for johanni, imo no matter what you crowd the tank with

 

[Frankie H]

I really need some advice. The aggression being shown by one of my johannis is ridiculous. Im so terrified hes going to kill my other fish. I have an assorted Cichlid tank and they have all been together for over a year now (i know people dont lime mixing african with sth americans etc but its worked fine for me for ages) but he is so angry that he is ramming my convicts and all of the other cichlids are hiding in one corner. He literally charges across the tank at them!

They are in a 3ft bow front tank which is quite deep and ther eis adequate spacing. The stocking is this:
1x electric yellow 2yrs old
1x electric yellow 1yr old
2x electric blue female 1yr old
2x johannis 2yrs old (im assuming 1male 1 female because they are paired)
4x convicts
2x yellow tail acies

I really dont know what to do with him because he is so angry. He has never been like this before. I am doing a water change today and splitting the ship wreck in half so one side is down each half of the tank and putting plants in the middle as a barrier but i dont know what else to do!

Is it a phase and will he calm down? Hes a large fish. Id say about 10cms. My other johanni seems oblivious to whats going. Shes just swimming around on her own.

This is a pic of the tank 2yrs ago when i got it so you can see the size..

Its not to small for them as we dont plan to add more and havent added any new fish for over a yr.

My johanni's have breed and wel after the female is fertilzied he mae became more aggresive, when I pulled the female out he calmed down, but they are very territorial fish and well its a good rule of tumb to keep malwis with malwis and south amerians with south americans and keep the other frican chilids in seperate tanks from the other africans. Another thing I have found with african chilids are that you really wanna just pack them in the tank, like I have 24 of the guys in my 55 gal tank, the rule of 1" per gallon for size of fish with chilids or at least the africans wasn't the best idea mainly because they will fight alot, so packin those guys in is good, then giving them alot of room. When the female takes the male will find a place to dig out, and if any of the other fish go around there he will chase them off everytime, so pull her out as soon as you have a little 10 gaalon tank set up to aviod many problems