Cichlids Fighting... Real Bad

[LobsterOfJustice]

20ish gallon tank with a pair of small red zebras and a pair of small demasonis.

All fish were bought at the same time, about two weeks ago. Since then one Demasoni has gotten noticibly bigger and healthier... he (assuming hes the male) will not let any of the other fish near the rockwork... his female is almost dead, fins ripped up etc, and the red zebras get chased around by him too, but not as much. I know of at least one fry in the tank, and I assume the demasoni is guarding it.

I know the tank is small, but I thought I could get away with this size tank for a while at least. I have a fry net thingy that I can hang into the tank and put the aggressive fish in for a while, until he calms down or the others recover and set up territories... good idea? What should I do?

 

[vantgE]

Demasoni are some of the most agrisive mbuna cichlids, and although they are smaller then moost species need a large tank of about 50 gallons, zebras are also extra agrisive mbuna
you need a 3 to one male to female ratio at least so the demasoni can spread out his agriesion this goes for the zebras too, what size are they right now these fish grow very fast and you have to keep in mind the time it takes to prepare your decor and cycle the tank,
I have four young africans in my ten right now one of the fishes would compare to the agresion level of the demasoni and has claimed 3/4 of the tanks but the other fish are smart and so don't bug him and there is litttle fighting they are all about 2-2.5 inches and will be moved to a 90 gallon next week, try takeing the demasoni male out and rearange all of the rockwork this can hel[p but i doubt it wil do too much, you need a bigger tank or some different fish

 

[CFC]

Did you read this before starting out with mbuna cichlids? Your tank is too small to even consider trying to keep a mixture of these highly aggressive little cichlids, you will need to upgrade to a larger tank or return the fish to the store.

 

[Vip]

CFC and Vantge have it spot on your tank is to small and now they are territorial and prolly wont stop untill fish are moved out of the tank or the alpha kills the others, it does sound like typical cichlid territorial behavoir.

 

[LobsterOfJustice]

Alright.

Ive taken the rocks out, put the aggressive one in the fry net thing, and set up temporary caves out of bricks. I cant get to the petstore to make any returns/exchanges tonight or tomorrow, but I'll try asap.

So what should I do?

At first I thought I could return the pair of Red Zebras, but that wouldn't solve the problem of the male Demasoni hasrassing the female. So maybe I could return both Demasoni's... but the tank would be a little bland with just a pair of Red Zebras. So I've gotten it down to two options:

1) Return all four and get a new pair of Demasoni's. Not sure this would help as I'm getting the impression from your responses that the tank would still be too small.

2) Return all four and get a pair of German Blue Rams. My original plan was to have a pair of Rams in this tank, but I wasn't impressed with the ones they had for sale at my LFS (the ones on display were beautiful, but the ones for sale were bland). I think this tank is big enough for a pair of these.

 

[vantgE]

For a tank that small your need to go with less agresive cichlids how about a small group of souliosi, male look similar to demasoni if you like the look or some labidochromis caeruleus

Don't get more dmasoni your tank is too small

 

[thecichlidaddict]

eturn all four and get a pair of German Blue Rams. My original plan was to have a pair of Rams in this tank, but I wasn't impressed with the ones they had for sale at my LFS (the ones on display were beautiful, but the ones for sale were bland). I think this tank is big enough for a pair of these.

Rams are certainly a a much better idea, if you keep trying mbuna in that tank, you'll just end up returning to the fish store all the time... or losing fish. Don't worry about the color of the rams, they tend to look drab in sales tanks, but once they make themselves at home in your tank (assuming everything is set up right for them) they will gain the color and become more active.

 

[LobsterOfJustice]

Thank you all. I will be returning the four tonight and getting a pair of Rams

 

[Lange]

Try adding for fish i know it sounds cazy but with so many fush he could never keep track of the same one to chase and with so many fish could not claim territory and rearrandge the tank layout i have done this many of time and it really works