How do I stop this aggression????!

[Seryiouz]

I'll try and remove him again for a few hours and let the tank mates settle. Tomorrow I'm gonna add a few more and hope it helps. There's more spots to hide then there is fish so... Ya... I'm lost

Nah...cichlids are unpredictable at times & with them you always learn something new as you go along.

 

[cheryldooley]

This is where it happens!



This is the trouble guy!!



This is the one entries to mate haha

 

[cheryldooley]

Well time out for few hours seemed to work for this one. This time anyway... Thanks all!!

 

[IADave]

Glad to hear it worked so fast! Whenever I've tried time out its has taken a couple days, even multiple times!

 

[cheryldooley]

Glad to hear it worked so fast! Whenever I've tried time out its has taken a couple days, even multiple times!

Did it twice in a day for few hours each. He's better now

 

[chevypride]

My tank is quiet overstocked, and my alpha make usually stays pretty settled. If he does get out of hand I take absolutely everything out of the tank except for the sand, and leave it like that for an hour or so (there usually to scared to fight), and then put it back completely different. Make sure you have enough caves and hiding places for each fish, most of my submissives don't have a cave but if they want one there is plenty if extra for them. Personally I like having the dominate male, when I add new fish he keeps them from attacking the other fish. That's usually the only time he gets aggressive is when there's new fish he's teaching a lesson too. Maybe try adding say... A convict or something. Something more aggressive who might for him a run for his money. You could always get rid of the other one later, but it could help him settle. Worse case I'd rehome him, and hope that the next dominate one isn't so mean.

 

[Seryiouz]

My tank is quiet overstocked, and my alpha make usually stays pretty settled. If he does get out of hand I take absolutely everything out of the tank except for the sand, and leave it like that for an hour or so (there usually to scared to fight), and then put it back completely different. Make sure you have enough caves and hiding places for each fish, most of my submissives don't have a cave but if they want one there is plenty if extra for them. Personally I like having the dominate male, when I add new fish he keeps them from attacking the other fish. That's usually the only time he gets aggressive is when there's new fish he's teaching a lesson too. Maybe try adding say... A convict or something. Something more aggressive who might for him a run for his money. You could always get rid of the other one later, but it could help him settle. Worse case I'd rehome him, and hope that the next dominate one isn't so mean.

Well the verdict is still out whether Convicts are more aggressive than Africans & vice versa...

I have a tank full of convicts & I added a few Africans b/c I wanted a variety...@ first the Albino Mbuna ran the tank w/several lip locking battles w/my Albino Convict who was the boss...he even had the convict in the corner of the tank scared to death...then one day I woke up and the African was murdered that was two yrs ago...
Just recently I thought I'd help my brother in law out because he had a yellow lab that was terrorizing the other yellow lab to the point where he would never leave this ornament. Well I gave him a pair of my Convicts to calm the aggression down & guess what?...the Yellow Lab murdered them both *shrugs*

 

[snowman17]

Adding a convict in a tank full of Africans will not help

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[cheryldooley]

I also added a few more fish to help over stock today and that started some fights but then they all stopped and swim together now. Don't know what happened maybe the new male put him in his place but alls good so far

 

[fishyd]

Another thing to try would be building up the rocks higher or adding some taller plants to help break line of sight. That way you have physical barriers and that should help contain the aggression some.

 

[Apoc2k8]

Gonna have to remove that aggressive fish.

 

[cheryldooley]

Gonna have to remove that aggressive fish.

Think you're right. He's at it again and really hurt my blue zebra

 

[Apoc2k8]

The aggression ain't going to stop. The best course of action is removing him from the tank before he kills all of your fish

 

[Wy Renegade]

If you have more hiding spaces in ratio to fish... They become extremely aggressive an territorial... Either over stock the tank with loads of cichlids i like putting loads of smaller ones in and then that should calm it down. Or remove some hiding places potentially?

Adding hiding places does not make the fish more aggressive. With Africans you want as much rock work and hiding places as you can get. So harassed fish have somewhere to hide. Overstocking can help, but then you deal with overstocking problems, like filtration and lack of oxygen.

Why move the parrots? Those are one on my favs?!

Parrots are not Africans and typically can't stand up to the aggression of Africans.

Removing a fish for short periods typically only stresses the fish out and solves the problem for a short period of time only. If it works, it is only because moving it stressed it out so much that another fish was able to take over the dominant position, at least for awhile. As was already pointed out, you need to add more rocks and hiding places. With Africans the more you can add the better conditions in the tank will be. If that fish is being too aggressive, rehome it, but with Africans you need to realize that you will constantly be dealing with aggression and one of them will always be the big fish in the tank - tiz the nature of Africans. They may be pretty, but they are not nice.

 

[cheryldooley]

Added females for the aggressive



Changing the aqua scape and adding females for the other males hanged everything!! No more aggression and all acting nice!

 

[Seryiouz]

Can't go to the bar w/o any females there, a fight is bound to break out...lol

 

[cheryldooley]

Haha true. But seems it's turned around. My breeder in use has agreed to take him of I can't use him in the tank anymore

 

[Seryiouz]

Who the purple trouble guy?

 

[cheryldooley]

It's the white one. Albino zebra

 

[jahonnimyfav101]

Try to add more rocks and rearranged the rocks whenever u put a new cichlid in there. Cichlids will always be mean