Demasoni in a 4foot 55 gal tank

[TomK2]

I recently converted my established tank to a cichlid tank by adding texas holey rock on top of the existing gravel, and also adding 8 yellow lab and eleven 1.5 inch demasoni. Water quality is excellent, no ammonia or nitrite spikes from the sudden bioload (tank has been up and running for YEARS!), nitrate 0 to 10 ppm, pH 7.8 to 8 and GH 11. One yellow lab turned up dead on day 3 , and 4 Demasoni died off within 5 days. Now for about two week no more fish losses.

12 demasoni were recommended in a tank my size to disperse agression. I am down to 7. Should I add more? Or just leave well enough alone? I was wondering if con-specific aggression would start/resume (not sure why the 4 died) one day and I would be left with one. But I also am not sure how many demasoni I am willing to go through attempting a stable population.

 

[dalto]

Usually the issues would be acclimation/stress/poor stock more than aggression at that size.

If you can easily find a few more at a similar size from a different source I would try it. Maybe get back to 10? If you can't then 7 is probably going to be enough. Just a matter of probability.