# The most aggressive Tang



## Mr Dinks (Sep 23, 2008)

Who is the bully boy of the tangs

My vote goes for the Julidochromis species


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## Fogelhund (Dec 3, 2002)

Mr Dinks said:


> Who is the bully boy of the tangs
> 
> My vote goes for the Julidochromis species


Not even close really, might not make the top 100 for that matter.

If we are sticking with cichlids, it is going to end up being one of the Lepidiolamprologus, a Neolamprologus such as chrysti, tetracanthus, sexfasciatus, tretocephalus, or Telmatochromis caninus..


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## triscuit (May 6, 2005)

Oh, julies are sweeties in comparison to most Tang cichlids. :wink: Fish I've kept that are more aggressive include L. stappersi, N. leleupi, N. brichardi... even my gobies show more aggression than either my J. marlieri or transcriptus have.

Fogelhund's list contains fish I would never consider keeping because of their aggression. Julies can be hard on each other when pairing up, and the larger ones can harass shellies to get at the fry, but in general julies make good neighbors and claim relatively small territories. Of course, there are individual julies that are more aggressive than others, but that goes for any group of fish.

Why do you ask, and why did you guess julies?


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## chapman76 (Jun 30, 2004)

I know Telmatochromis sp. temporalis shell are nasty. My little gobies were awful with one another, but great with everyone else in the tank. My occies were little killers too, but only with other occies.


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## Mr Dinks (Sep 23, 2008)

Mr Dinks said:


> Who is the bully boy of the tangs
> 
> My vote goes for the Julidochromis species


AHHH! The world of jest!.............. :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

My shellies especially the similis seems a bit of a fighter....Serious now :thumb:


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## Chestermere (Mar 24, 2007)

My vote goes for Neolamprologus savoryi --very nasty they attack all tank mates and even the breeding pairs are rough on each other Here's a pic of a male aka. Mr Grumpy


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## Chris Murphy (Jun 24, 2008)

L.Nkambae (Kendalii)
L.Elongatus

Julies are like fluffy bunny rabbits in most cases,but I do see your point how in a certain sized tanks or if mixed with certain fish how they can be demons.


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## markw (Feb 20, 2004)

I agree with Foglehund, and will suggest lepidiolamprologus attenuatus. I have a pair of w/c's (used to be 4!)and more fry than I can count. The acrylic tank they're in has so much algae on the front you can't see them. The reason its so covered is you can't scrub it without being attacked. They hit anything that is put in the tank faster than you can believe, including my hand! The syphon hose I use to change water has bite marks in it! When people come over to look at the fish, and who don't believe they are this mean get a kick when I challenge them to clean the front of the tank! I usually ask them to sign a legal release before I get sued!( :lol: )


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## Alleycat (Dec 2, 2006)

Lepidiolamprologus and Telmats .... hands down !!

J


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## jsimon42085 (Feb 26, 2008)

I'm going to have to go with N. Sexfasciatus....I nicknamed mine "goggles".
This SOB would beat up any fish that even tried to move during feeding time...including a Comp that was double his size.
Now he's paired up with a 7 inch frontosa, the two get along great thankfully.


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## Fogelhund (Dec 3, 2002)

I've had the fortune (!) to keep a number of these fish. :lol:

So far the most aggressive are Neolamprologus chrysti. The first time they bred, they wiped out a custom 78" long tank worth of fish (Haps and Lethrinops 6-9") in a couple of hours. They hit the glass when you walked by the tank, and would leap out of the water and grab your hand when they had fry. The male was around 8".

Lepidiolamprologus nkambae and Telmatochromis caninus are even for me next. Both have mostly cleaned out 6ft tanks upon spawning.

Other fish, such as elongatus, attenuatus, tetracanthus are at the next level. They are aggressive, and do kill plenty, but not quite at the pace or damage of the others for me.

Neolamprologus savoryi aggressively defend their territory, but they aren't going to clean out a 6ft tank at all. I've had them spawn (WC) in a community aquarium, and while they held plenty of territory, they weren't nearly as bad as some of the others listed above. For that matter, my Neolamprologus Jumbo Brichardi were worse than the savoryi.


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## FLGirl1977 (Jul 24, 2007)

I think 2 adult tropheus in one tank are NASTY to each other (or at least the dominate one to the other). I see this in pet stores and the other is barely alive.


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## Neolamprologus Marco (Jan 14, 2008)

My O. Ventralis kicks some fin in my tank.


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## Furcifer158 (Feb 16, 2008)

:lol: :lol: :lol: Xeno cherry Princess :lol: :lol: :lol:


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## Furcifer158 (Feb 16, 2008)

:lol: :lol: :lol: Paracyp's :lol: :lol: :lol:


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## Josh_McFadden (Jul 5, 2004)

Do Cypho's count? I would consider inhalation a form of aggression haha. Anything that fits in their mouth they will eat when the sun goes down haha. Like a Jack the Ripper of the Tanganyikan world.


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## Multies (Mar 9, 2007)

i vote for..
trets
kendalli's
telmatochromis sps. not all but most.
most lepidiolamps- i actually found lepidiolamprologus lemairii's very calm. just keep them out of fish that can fit in their mouth. their pretty gentle and slow most of the time. Just keep them out of smaller fish :wink: 
N.leleupi would be most annoying.

no one voted the occies :lol: 
i would say their the most aggressive for their size :lol: :lol: 
2inches of pure muscle! those guys are fiesty!


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## gherlevi (Dec 16, 2004)

How do the various petrochromis rank? An Ad Konig's book suggested that those are borderline impossible to keep in a home aquarium?


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## Fogelhund (Dec 3, 2002)

gherlevi said:


> How do the various petrochromis rank? An Ad Konig's book suggested that those are borderline impossible to keep in a home aquarium?


They are pretty aggressive towards each other, though they have been kept in the home aquaria, in much the same manner you would keep Tropheus.

Mouthbrooders by their very nature are not as aggressive as substrate spawners though.


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## 24Tropheus (Jun 21, 2006)

Fogelhund said:


> Mouthbrooders by their very nature are not as aggressive as substrate spawners though.


Wondered when mouthbrooder aggression would be mentioned.
I hear Ctenochromis horei is a bit of an exception to the rule in that they are only bully co specifics (they are horrific to their own species true) because it is generally nasty to everything.

Goby cichlids are generally peaceful to none gobys but they can make other goby cichlids lives miserable.

To discuss it properly I guess we need to separate co specific aggression, co genera aggression and co "family" aggression from general aggression?

Even Julies are capable of making many similar fishes life a short and unpleasant one when they pair.

Honorable mention to Lepidiolamprologus hecqui/meeli any fish at 3" that can hunt down and kill all its own type in a 7 foot by 2 foot by 2 foot busy and well rocked and planted aquarium must be quite high on the within species aggression table. :wink:


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## Chestermere (Mar 24, 2007)

Fogelhund said:


> gherlevi said:
> 
> 
> > How do the various petrochromis rank? An Ad Konig's book suggested that those are borderline impossible to keep in a home aquarium?
> ...


I agree but I did notice this morning in one of my fry tanks that has around 30 2 inch L. nkambaes in it, one 3/4 inch bemba that somehow got in there from the Tropheus fry tank beside it was bullying the nkambaes like they were little girls was kind of funny


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## Mr Goby (Apr 20, 2006)

Lepidiolamprologus profundicola, in the wild there's a several meter "no go zone" around these fish when they have paired off and are in breeding mode. Also take into account the males can attain over a foot in length and there's not much that will push them around.
Never kept them in a tank though so they could be real puddy cat in captivity :lol:


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## FLGirl1977 (Jul 24, 2007)

Mr. Goby.... that guy just _LOOKS_ mean! :lol: Probably would attack a diver that got _too_ close!


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## zebra7 (Jan 24, 2004)

The two badest Tanganyikan's I've kept are Neolamp. Nigriventris, and Neo. Obscurus. When these guy's are in breeding mode I've seen them beat the **** out of anything that get's close. Obscurus male's are built like Pit bull's, and tough as nail's. My Nigriventris is a solid 6in. , and has teeth on him like a Cuda. He's ripped scale's off many a fish who get close to his breeding cave.


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## cichlidiot75 (Feb 22, 2005)

I stumbled upon this old thread, and today I was at my LFS where they had Boulengerochromis Microlepsis. The info tag on the tank said SMALL. They were at least 8" 

They are schooling predators and can get pretty agressive. They grow up to 36". The species profile says you can keep a few in a 500g, but my LFS recommends an absolute minimum of 1000 gallon for a small group in a species only tank. They would kill anything that is smaller. Or just swallow it :lol:


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## BioG (Oct 12, 2008)

I don't think anything can step to the less than sunny disposition of Christyi, they flat out kill. I'll go N. Falcicula first (Unless mine are just posessed :lol: ), which as 2 inch juvies killed 3 inch mbuna in a grow tank I had them in (A tank that they now own!). The mbuna were put there as a joke by a friend... long story.

My next bet goes to V. Moori, nasty little tirds when they're mature, breeding or not. These aren't bullies though, all three fish I mentioned are KILLERS!


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## Fogelhund (Dec 3, 2002)

I expected the worst out of V. moori, yet had them breeding in a community setup without any real issues. They aggressively defended their territory, but only really took about 2' square.

I imagine Boulengerochromis would be a force when breeding, but I only had one, and it wasn't particularly aggressive as a single... again, substrate spawners really only turn it up when spawning though.


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## Longstocking (Aug 26, 2003)

hmmmm...

I dunno who would win... a 10+ inch Petrochromis or a lepidio...

I have seen them together. But they didn't fight...

I would think the Petro would win though.... It's just if it would really care to fight a substrate spawner....

A substrate spawner would pick a fight with a Petro if the petro swam into it's territory.

A large breeding Petrochromis doesn't let much into it's territory but I have actually found the females can do more damage "generally" than the males.


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## Kalambo (Aug 10, 2009)

hello all,

my vote would also have to go with the Lamps i have had quite a few varieties nd currently have F1 Kantalamba N. Pulcher, WC N. Sexfasciatus"kipili", WC N. Tretocephalus and i would have to say the Sexfasciatus are definatly up there, he even kicks the **** out of his mate when they spawn. Featherfins and Cyps/Paracyps are quite peacefull compared to most of the Lamp genus.


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## BioG (Oct 12, 2008)

Oh yeah has anyone mentioned Helianthus?


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## Fogelhund (Dec 3, 2002)

BioG said:


> Oh yeah has anyone mentioned Helianthus?


N. brichardi types are aggressive, but not really in the same league as some of the others mentioned here.


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