worried about my electric yellow lab

[aqua_guy]

hey, i have been observing my yellow lab for about a week. he has been lurking solely near the filter lately. i dont know if he's sick or not, hopefully not. but i'm kinda worry. though he has been eating well, he usually go back to the same spot again. he is with 18 other cichlids in my 50 gallon tank. is he sick or is that cichlids sometimes like it alone?

 

[tkos]

That sounds like my platy. She lives in a cave and then comes out to eat and right back into the cave. She is healthy though or at least from all I can tell she is. As long as your fish looks healthy, is eating and can easily fight the current from the filter it is probably fine.

The only other thing is that maybe it is having trouble breathing and the filter output is water with more oxygen in it. Watch it to see if it is breathing more rapidly then other fish.

 

[smooth_rivers]

Yellow labs are just about the least agressive of the dwarf africans. Not unusual behavior for them.

 

[shawmutt]

It depends by what you mean by "lurking." If you mean resting on the bottom or against decorations, then you might have problems. If the fish is just hanging out and not resting constantly against something, then I agree--normal behavior. They definitely are not schooling fish, and tend to stick to one territory.

 

[screaminbuckeye]

My yellow lab Nemo tends to lurk and he has done that for almost the entire year that I have had him. Pretty normal for yellow labs as they are more passive. Worry about it if they lean on stuff or if their breathing is irradic.

 

[ferret]

18? Please tell me you plan to remove some in the future.

Most cichilds will only hang out up at the rim in this nature when they are being threatened by others and unable to establish their own territory. Even yellow labs. Mine has never stayed at the rim. He lurks about in various places at times, but never at the rim.

If the other fish in your tank are species of like-size to yellow labs, you're very overstocked. I don't know the current sizes of your fish, but very soon you're going to have aggression issues as the fish mature and fight for territory.. and there's isn't a whole lot to go around.