Fish attack!!

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Big.Jon

Aquarium Advice Activist
Joined
Apr 27, 2011
Messages
127
Location
Iowa
So I have had a a community of African Cichlids for awhile now . A month ago I found one of my OB red zebras was being attacked badly so I pulled him and he has since been in a 20g long. Now about two weeks ago I found a Kenyi being attacked and singled out, so pulled her out (weirdest thing though once pulled out and put into another tank she / he now lol decided to show his egg spots and started changing greenish yellow (not full yellow yet). Well now back to the point, yesterday I found yet another Kenyi Female ( for sure female she has had a batch or two), being attacked and singled out. So I know they do get more aggressive as the get older, but just seems like they are singling a single weeker tank mate out. They have all been peacefully for the last 6 months or more. I even upgraded from 55g to 75g back in october. They have tons of hiding spots I have tons of rocks and cave areas set up. I am just concerned I am going to keep pulling fish out till I am left with very little. Any suggestions would be great. I guess I need to figure out who is doing the most attacking. Plus is there any point in putting the Ob zebra back in, his wounds have pretty well healed and fins are in good shape again?
 
This is a common problem in a mbuna tank. If you list all of your stock and maturity levels we could help better. Feeding twice a day (small amnts), re-arranging deco (avoiding caves), overstocking, overfiltering, and maintaing a proper boy/girl ratio is helpful in controlling aggression. You will never get total peace. Some people use a larger Hap to be the tank boss. My guess is you need to increase your stock, rearrange deco as you add new fish. Pull all deco out pull all fish out into a bucket. Clean all your substrate and get all the hard to reach places. replace deco in a new way. Add all old and new fish back. Keep lights off for a day or so. Try and match the size of new fish to your old ones. Dont forget a 1-3 male to female ratio. Keeping many different types of mbuna is a no-no also. Try and pick 3. Like labs, zebras, and kenyi.
 
Thanks for suggestions. Sorry ment to add what was stocked in there.
1 Nimbochromis venustus (not boss but only 2nd to male Kenyi)
Kenyi - 1 M 2F (2nd Male, and 3rd Female in 20gal atm)
OB red zebra - 1 M - 2F (3rd in 20g)
Socolofi - 1M - 2 F
All of the above are about 9-11 months old about fully grown I think.
 
Filtration
Fluval 306 ( think its about 300gal per hour)
Tetra 70 gal hob filter (unsure of gal per hr on this one)
 
Thats not too shabby at all. I would think about 20-25 fish. If your are a DIY guy then you could add a sump in pretty easy. Then you could go to 30-35. That is a good start to overstocking in a 75. There are many ways to amp up your biofiltration like adding seachem matrix to your HOB. If your going to really overstock you need a big fluval or a sump.
 
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