General Chiclid question

[EMT21FF]

I'm brand new to the world of Chiclids (i've only had two) and not sure what is normal behavior for these fish. I currently have a "Yellow Tang" Chiclid in a 29 gallon tank with corse sand as my substrate. There are also three other non-chiclid tankmates in this tank. My question to whoever can help me out is, My chiclid is "digging" in the substrate by sucking in a mouthfull of sand and moving it. It has "dug" two holes in the substrate this way and spends most of the day inside one of the decorations in the tank. Is this normal behavior?? all this started no more then two weeeks ago after being in the same tank, same substrate and decorations, and same tankmates for over a year.

 

[mfdrookie516]

To be honest, I'm not familiar with yellow tang cichlids, never heard of them and neither has google apparently. But the answer to your question is yes. Every cichlid I"ve owned, both sa/ca and african, have done the same thing. Most cichlids like to hide, especially those from the rift lakes in Africa.

 

[sliderfish]

Mine do the same sort of things. They have cleared out entire corners of the tank through 2 plus inches of gravel before. I haven't heard of "yellow tang" cichlids either though...

 

[EMT21FF]

Thank you for helping me out. Yes i made a mistake in what kind of chiclid it is...its a "Yellow Lab" not Yellow Tang...my bad

 

[mfdrookie516]

Ok, now yellow labs I know about. I can tell your right now that your tank is too small for yellow labs. Do you have a 4' tank or at least have plans to get one very soon?

 

[EMT21FF]

Actually no i have not planned on upgrading to a larger tank due to space issues at the moment. Eventually i would love to upgrade to a quite large tank 125g or larger.

 

[SeverumGuy]

The only tang I know of is the drink powder and the saltwater fish. Chances are its an african cichlid if it's showing that kind of behavior. If that's the case, yes it's normal behavior. Once they reach a certain size they develop that habit.

 

[Wy Renegade]

Normal behavior, and so long as you don't introduce any other cichlids into the tank, space should not be an issue. However, as was stated above, if you plan on introducing other cichlids, the 29gal is too small.

 

[ChizerBunoi]

If they get too big, you should take them back to the lfs and trade them in for some dwarf varieties. Some nice ones are Bolivian/German Blue Ram and Apistogrammas.

Keep an eye on the yellow lab as it will get aggressive towards the other fish.