# A bully amongst us.



## dsawyer56 (Oct 29, 2009)

I have a bully in my tank. He is a 3.5 inch Blue cobalt zebra. He is bigger than most fish with the exception of a couple. He only picks on the fish his size though. I have a red zebra that is his size that always stays behind my filter intake tube and is only able to come out when they are fed. Yesterday I got a Daphodil who was the same size of the blue zebra. He got his butt kicked and i had to take him back. I replaced him with a yellow peacock that is a little bigger than the blue zebra. I like the peacock alot better than the zebra. The zebra is chasing the peacock around but hasn't nipped his fins yet. Will the Blue Zebra always be a problem or will he chill out a little after he is used to the peacock? Should I just get rid of the Zebra or will anouther fish just take his place as the tank bully? Thanks.


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## firenzena (Nov 29, 2009)

How big is tank? 
How many inhabitants?

Putting in one fish at a time will only give the bully a new target.

You could try getting rid of blue, but as you say you may get a new bully if you don't change general dynamic of the tank. All tanks naturally have hierarchy so if you have room.

Add more fish and rearrange aquascaping, maybe add more rocks and give more territories, the addition of numerous fish at a time will disperse aggression. Maybe Zeb needs more mbunas to interact with

Sounds like there is wide variety of genus and species( malawi peacocks, mbuna, and tanganyikan 
from the fish listed so far).Another option is toselect tankmates that are more naturally suited to each other.


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## dsawyer56 (Oct 29, 2009)

I have a 55 gallon. I have 10 swimming fish and 3 bottom dwellers. Actually since I introduced the new peacock the Red Zebra has colored up alot just today. He is also out running around the tank. Looks like some of the pressure is off of him. My list is a little old. I got the Peacock because the Firemouth finally got beat up too much and died. The Firemouth was an oops from a store where the girl was new and didn't know it was New World. I know a little more since taking that fish. Still not much though. So far the Peacock is holding his own. Seems like he may actually help the tank since the aggression is being spred out a little.


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## steelers fan (Jun 26, 2009)

whats your stocklist...?

you can try putting the cobalt in a time out. maybe a nursery cube or how bout a tank divider. then reintroduce him after 2 weeks...usually calms them down but may not 
i dont see that peacock lasting long...maybe with a more docile stocklist but if your stocklist compares to the cobalt and the red zebra, im not holding out hope for your peacock.

whats your stocklist?


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## dsawyer56 (Oct 29, 2009)

Below is my stock. It's been a few days now and the Peacock is holding his own. Introducing him actually helped spread the aggression some and took heat off of the Red Zebra. If it becomes a problem again I may try that. Putting my daughter in the corner works when she's bad. Why not try it with a misbehaving Zebra :thumb: Thanks.

1 Red Zebra 
1 Yellow Lab 
1 Upside Down Catfish 
1 Kenyi 
1 Pleco 
1 Yellow Peacock 
1 Cobalt Blue Zebra 
1 Red Jewel
1 Pictus Catfish 
1 Duboisi 
1 Orange Blossom 
1 Venustus 
1 Kadango


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## steelers fan (Jun 26, 2009)

pretty wild stocklist...all male?

be carefull when the venustus gets a little older...if he starts playing dead he may try to gulp one of your smaller fish

i would expect that kenyi if all are healthy to take over as tank boss any second now


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## dsawyer56 (Oct 29, 2009)

Not sure on if all male or not. Kind of picked fish by which was prettiest. Not the right way to pick I know but I didn't know at the time. Started by using Petnotsosmart and they were pretty much no help. Still don't know which are males or females. Are Kenyi generally pretty aggressive? What's the deal with playing dead? The Venustus is only about 2 inches right now. I know they get around 10 inches. He is one of the smaller fish right now. Hopefully the others will be fully grown and he won't look at them as dinner. I'm probably gonna get a new tank in the future to spread out some of the fish. Is my stocklist that screwed up? I was pretty much told that as long as they are african cichlids they would be ok together.


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## MalawiLover (Sep 12, 2006)

dsawyer56 said:


> Are Kenyi generally pretty aggressive?


Kenyi are amongst the most aggressive and ill tempered of mbuna. Very often females are just as nasty as the males when they reach sexual maturity.



> What's the deal with playing dead?


Venustus are ambush predators. They will lie in wait (often listing to one side) looking dead or injured. Smaller fish come to investigate the odd behavior and the venustus snarf them up. Kinda cool to watch, but really sucks when it eats your other display fish.


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## dsawyer56 (Oct 29, 2009)

That is cool. Maybe i'll get some small feeder fish when the Venustus to eat when he gets bigger. Maybe he will leave my other show fish alone then. I didn't know about the Kenyi either. I'm dealing with a local fish store now not petnotsosmart anymore. He'll let me return and swap anything i'm having problems with. Thanks.


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## steelers fan (Jun 26, 2009)

watch out with feeder fish as well...they may introduce a disease into your tank also if your mbuna join in the fun of eating the feeders they may very easily develop digestive illnesses since they are not meat eaters and their long digestive tract does not deal well with high protein foods. thats why people usually dont mix carnivours with herbivours...its too hard to feed the right foods and keep everyone healthy.


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## dsawyer56 (Oct 29, 2009)

The Venustus seems to be doing fine on just spirulina 20 and occasional hikari cichlid gold floating pellets. Will this be sufficient for him or will he need meat in his diet as well? If meat is needed how do I feed him and not the others meat? Or will I just need to get rid of him and get anouther mbuna?


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## steelers fan (Jun 26, 2009)

he will be ok for now diet wise...but im afraid **** get too big for your tank. he will get as long as your tank is deep so next to no turning space.

your tank should be long enough for any fish to swim a short distance at full speed to get away from any bullies or at least be able to turn comfortably.


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## steelers fan (Jun 26, 2009)

> but im afraid #%$& get too big for your tank.


 ^he'll^


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## PepoLD (Dec 9, 2009)

MalawiLover said:


> dsawyer56 said:
> 
> 
> > Are Kenyi generally pretty aggressive?
> ...


how can you tell if is male or female?
I think my dominant Kenyi is a Female one.. because of the lack of spots on her anal fin... ?


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## MalawiLover (Sep 12, 2006)

Eggs spots really don't mean anything and are definitely not a good indicator of gender. A mature male kenyi is yellow. As they grow the males will start to take on a yellow hue. Once fully mature, they look similar to labs (but no dorsal stripe). Females will remain Blue with the black bands. Take a look at the profile pics of the kenyi (Metriaclima lombardoi). The first pic is male.


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## PepoLD (Dec 9, 2009)

oh.. is exactly like mine, a more yellow than orange but the spots are the same..
then the red zebra with a lot of egg spots doesn't mean its a male?

hehe thanks ! >)


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## dsawyer56 (Oct 29, 2009)

My Kenyi is only a couple inches long but is taking a yellowish hue. I'm guessing he's gonna be male. He isn't a problem so far. Hope he doesn't realize he's a bad a$$ when he reaches maturity.


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## MalawiLover (Sep 12, 2006)

PepoLD said:


> oh.. is exactly like mine, a more yellow than orange but the spots are the same..
> then the red zebra with a lot of egg spots doesn't mean its a male?
> 
> hehe thanks ! >)


For mbuna, males will often have a greater number or more vibrant eggs spots than the females of the same species, but it is by no means a rule so using them for sexing is extremely unreliable.

With red zebras (Metriaclima estherae) of the red x red variety the male will often be more of a peach once they mature and will sometimes have a slight bluish sheen on the dorsal and tail fins, but again, not always.

The only sure way to sex monomorphic species (both genders look the same) is by venting.


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