cichlid territories

[shawmutt]

I'm doing crazy research on my new tank, and for every answer I find I have 2 more questions! This one's about the cichlid territories. I know they're all territorial, but what exactly do their territories consist of? Are they little niches they find in the rock, or whole sections of the tank that they patrol? Will they claim territory on top of another's territory or will they constantly fight? If the answer is species based, I'm getting yellow labs. Basically I'm trying to visualize the rockwork that I need to do.

 

[Zic]

Well, each one is going to be different. I've heard people say that some cichlids will claim a whole fifty five gallon tank to themselves! You can prevent this a number of ways. The more hiding spots you have the better. Put as many caves, plants (fake ones, as many cichlids are omnivoires) as you can. Don't skimp on this or you will not be able to get as many fish into the tank as you may want.

Also, and this is important. Get all your cichlids at the same time. You don't have to get them all at the same store, just don't release any into the tank until you have all the ones you want. This way, no one fish will be able to claim a territory before another. I made the mistake of getting one red zebra and keeping him for two months before I got a blue zebra and an auratus. The red zebra was not pleased at all. I had to remove the blue zebra, or he would have gotten killed for sure. If I had gotten them all at the same time, I don't think I would have had this problem.
If you are only getting one species, then you will probably be able to get more into your tank than if you picked ten different species. I'm not %100 sure of this one, but it sounds good, no?

Finally, I would reccommend that you make your filter dump the water into a mostly open space section of the tank. My red zebra loves swimming in the current. He also doesn't really grab food that floats on the surface. He waits until the filter's stream grabs the food and pushes it under. Then, it's a moving target for him to hit. He sits at the bottom of the tank, where the stream goes and gobbles the flakes as they flow by him.

 

[TankGirl]

I think there are certain cichlids that have smaller territories than others, but I can't recall specifics. I would just provide separate sections so that if one fish is at the opening of a small cave, it is out of the sight-line of another cave-type area that might be claimed as a territory. Another trick is that if you are adding fish slowly to avoid disrupting your bio-filter, every time you add a new fish "redecorate" somewhat so that the current residents have to find a new spot just like the new additions.

 

[reberly]

If you're talking about africans, I can tell you this much: caves are important. My red zebra immediately chose a cave that was HIS. He doesn't allow anyone else in it except the pleco (who doesn't like a good housekeeper?). Zic is right about adding your fish at the same time. We tried to add a new one and it just couldn't cut it. If you absolutely have no choice and have to add one later, you have to take TankGirl's advice about redecorating. However, I recommend completely redoing the tank. Plants, rocks, caves, EVERYTHING. This should give the new guy a chance to find his own spot. We recently completely redecorated our tank with rocks from a local creek. It looks AWESOME. I wish we'd have used sand though instead of gravel, kinda too late now. I would recommend black sand and real rock... this is how our future 55 gallon looks in my head. It's going to be sweet, especially the color contrast we'll have with the blue and red cichlids (and someday a yellow lab) against a black background. Shawmutt, you won't have nearly as many problems if you're keeping only yellow labs, they are actually quite peaceful, relative to most other africans. Stay away from red zebras unless you're planning a LARGE tank, they're pretty aggressive, I'm sure Zic would agree. Our red zebra has grown almost an inch in about 3 months, he should just about be at his maximum size now.

In any case, af. cichlids are the coolest freshwater fish around. I spend almost as more time watching them than I do tv. Feeding time is the best, it's a frenzy.

Ryan