I have a 20g with 7 multifasciatus cichlids, as well as a few endlers and various snails.
One of my male multis has taken to wedging itself between my thermometer and the tank glass. His fins are a bit ragged, and he seems quite stressed. He is constantly being bullied by my other males as soon as he tries to move from this spot. I believe the problem may be that I have too many males with too few females (I believe I have 4 males and 3 females that were bought as juveniles, so i didn't know the ratio until they grew) so I was planning on picking up some more females this weekend, to try and ease the tension. He will come out to eat, but only if I drop food right above him, but is then chased back to his spot by two of the other males. I've tried moving shells around, to try and allow for new territories to be formed, but it didn't seem to matter.
Tank stats are great, everything as it should be for these fish. I did an extra 50% water change yesterday, just in case there was something I wasn't testing for, but it hasn't seemed to help.
All of the other fish seem healthy and happy, and I just don't know what to do. I've tried taking him out to take to my LFS, but he won't hide in a shell as they usually do and bolts into a hole in one of my rocks. It's impossible to get him out of there and I've tried tricking him, but he's still very fast and active.
Sorry for the long post, but I just don't know what else to do. Do you think adding females may help? any and all advice welcome.
One of my male multis has taken to wedging itself between my thermometer and the tank glass. His fins are a bit ragged, and he seems quite stressed. He is constantly being bullied by my other males as soon as he tries to move from this spot. I believe the problem may be that I have too many males with too few females (I believe I have 4 males and 3 females that were bought as juveniles, so i didn't know the ratio until they grew) so I was planning on picking up some more females this weekend, to try and ease the tension. He will come out to eat, but only if I drop food right above him, but is then chased back to his spot by two of the other males. I've tried moving shells around, to try and allow for new territories to be formed, but it didn't seem to matter.
Tank stats are great, everything as it should be for these fish. I did an extra 50% water change yesterday, just in case there was something I wasn't testing for, but it hasn't seemed to help.
All of the other fish seem healthy and happy, and I just don't know what to do. I've tried taking him out to take to my LFS, but he won't hide in a shell as they usually do and bolts into a hole in one of my rocks. It's impossible to get him out of there and I've tried tricking him, but he's still very fast and active.
Sorry for the long post, but I just don't know what else to do. Do you think adding females may help? any and all advice welcome.
