# Meanest MBUNA!



## Cichlidman14 (Jul 17, 2013)

Hello everyone I want to know what your meanest mbuna is. For me its my male Kenyi. He rules the tank, chases all my fish such as my female johanni and my yellow lab. He also won't even let the three females I got for him near the bottom of the tank. He is a true terror.


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## PiccoloJr (Oct 14, 2013)

I recently removed a Socolofi who was quite the rude fish.


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## Eugooglizer (Oct 30, 2012)

Kenyi for me as well, got rid of him long ago. If you don't have him in a big & properly stocked tank, he will probably kill all of your other fish eventually.


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## cichliddoc (Oct 15, 2013)

Kenyi, too, he's in a 5 gallon until we take him this weekend. Killed 4 fish.


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## Cichlidman14 (Jul 17, 2013)

Seems mostly Kenyi are the problem fish, I have heard of auratus(not sure how to spell it) for being extremely aggressive as well as the bumblebee.


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## nmcichlid-aholic (Mar 23, 2011)

My Metriaclima pulpican (aka Kingsizei) is definitely the meanest fish I've got. He's not the tank boss by a long shot, but he will pick on the subdom fish for absolutely no reason, and has killed a couple. He tries to start fights with the big guys, but when they put him in his place, it's like he gets mad and takes it out on the smaller ones. He's too cool to get rid of, though...


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## Cichlidman14 (Jul 17, 2013)

So far only 1 death of an electric blue johanni about when i first set up the tank. I'm just waiting for the bomb to go off  I have heard of red zebras but i have kept them and they don't seem to be that aggressive. What about you guys, have any aggressive red zebra or blue zebras. Any one is fine. :thumb:


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## jlose600 (Aug 6, 2012)

Without a doubt Melanochromis chipokae. I had a six inch male kill a ten inch nimbochromis venustus and a seven inch Kenyi male!!


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## Iggy Newcastle (May 15, 2012)

jlose600 said:


> Without a doubt Melanochromis chipokae. I had a six inch male kill a ten inch nimbochromis venustus and a seven inch Kenyi male!!


That is pretty nuts!

I have never kept a fish with that 'extreme aggression' reputation. Seems like too much of a headache. I've had L. caeruleus that were just nasty though. Right now my L. Hongi male is probably my meanest fish. He's only about 3" but will take on anyone; even fish twice his weight. He has 6 lady friends in a 6' tank and chases them back and forth, over and over. He's a real ba5tard. A gorgeous ba5tard, though...


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## adevoid1 (Sep 16, 2013)

I have had a bad problem with a gold auratus, IT WAS MEAN. I was given one and he was 3 inches, it chase this one blue dolphin, which was 4 1/2 inches, constantly. after a week of being chased the dolphin finally died of stress.


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## Cichlidman14 (Jul 17, 2013)

Post some pictures of the fish if you still have him/her or an internet picture if you got rid of the fish. Here is the devil himself at around 5 inches he's the king. Though he keeps everyone in line but makes more trouble then there actually is


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## gverde (Mar 3, 2010)

I had a 7" m. chipoka when I had my first 55G as a teenager. That was the meanest fish I ever had. It would fight with everyone in the tank to the point where it almost killed everything. It would have probably killed a dovi twice its size. Had to return him to the LFS where I purchased him.


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## chopsteeks (Jul 23, 2013)

A possessed Auratus.

Decided to donate him to LFS, the following morning, I was going to catch him.....a red jewel cichlid had done the job for me. He shredded that auratus during the night !!


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## BC in SK (Aug 11, 2012)

Kept auratus and kenyi quite a few times, since the 1970's. Bumble bee for almost 4 years now. All 3 species are very aggressive in their own way but IME, auratus is by far the more aggressive, hands down!

When introducing new fish to a tank, with very few exceptions, I always remove auratus temporarily. When I remove decor when doing a water change, and all the fish are scared, the auratus will take advantage of the situation and start chasing and harassing fish, not scared in the least bit! :lol:

When I attempted to keep a group of them in a 125 gal., even the females staked out territories.They fought and killed each other off. I attempted to up my numbers with the fry..... but at 2 - 2 1/2" they had to hide 24/7, were chased ridiculously when they came out of hiding, and were all killed off one by one! :x

Not too long ago, when I moved a few fish around, I placed my male auratus in my 15 gal. for a week in isolation. This was to make sure all the fish had a chance to establish. I then introduced him to my 180 gal., and immediately he began to chase and harass my large Chinese algae eater. I had to act ASAP and removed the CAE with in an hour of introducing the auratus. I then moved my small pleco in (~6") and thought things were fine, only to find it had been killed over night! :x So I moved some more fish around and introduced a larger pleco into the 180. Problem with the bottom feeders solved but then he went to atttacking the giant danios  , and would have killed them outright or harassed them to death if I did not finally remove him. Sometimes, there appears to be no rhyme or reason to there aggression. They take a dislike to a certain fish and they just don't stop.


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## Iggy Newcastle (May 15, 2012)

That story makes me want to try a group of auratus...


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## Cichlidman14 (Jul 17, 2013)

Hah ha, same makes me want to get another aggressive species. Though I'll need another tank


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## 7mm-08 (Jan 12, 2012)

In a tank at work we had a male Kenyi who was quite mean, but we also had an equally sized female Red Zebra who was just as bad, so they generally kept each other in check. Think USA and USSR during the cold war. My Perspicax Orange Cap is quite feisty but he's mostly bluster. He occasionally likes to make his rounds intimidating everyone (except my male N. cylindricus who he found out the hard way not to mess with) but he doesn't really do sustained chasing or injure anyone. Rusties are probably the nastiest little mbuna I've had....at least when they are the dominant fish. They aren't the type to bully larger and more aggressive fish like my Perspicax will, but when I had them in a tank with smaller fish, it was CONSTANT chasing and nipping.


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## Jaciesla (May 2, 2012)

My male Pseudotropheus Williamsi North Makonde is an ass. He digs and chases anything that swims as far away from his territory as he can get them.


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## Cichlidman14 (Jul 17, 2013)

My kenyi, i swear just causes trouble just to be a little jerk. If he sees a fish he charges at it and chases it around the tank twice and then goes back under his rock to dig and shovel sand out. I have to say he's a good decorator. :lol:


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## JohnnyJohanni1 (Jul 8, 2013)

I had a 5" male auratus named "Byrd". He was like the terminator of mbuna. He harassed everyone including my venustus. But he had a thing for my male Johann. I mean he would chase and chase and once you thought it was over he would find enough juice to keep going. I once sat and watched him wait for the johanni to come out of a cave he couldn't fit in for more than an hour. Dedicated terror. I took him to LFS in May. He is still for sale in the mixed cichlid tank 6 months later


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## chopsteeks (Jul 23, 2013)

JohnnyJohanni1 said:


> I took him to LFS in May. He is still for sale in the mixed cichlid tank 6 months later


Funny !!


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## Cichlidman14 (Jul 17, 2013)

Have you guys ever had a small little brute like 1-2 inches taking on one of the big boys in the tank.havent had tht happen to before but I have heard of it.


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## Cichlidman14 (Jul 17, 2013)

Post some pic guys of you meanest mbuna and of ur tank, love to see them


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## Lushaquatics (Sep 15, 2013)

IF any of you kept a Ps. Flavus then you'd see a whole new level of aggression... I had a beautiful wild caught male about 3.5" who had full reigns of my 100 gal tank, keeping Demasoni, Polit, Hongi, and Kennyi males all at bay up in the corners of the aquarium! No one else was allowed to colour up other than him...

I want one again!! LOL


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## JP_92 (Aug 2, 2013)

My flavus is around 3 inches. I don't find him to be overly aggressive. The most aggressive fish in my tank is a socolofi. He puts everyone in their place.


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## noki (Jun 13, 2003)

They all can be dominant jerks... it's just how they are. Of course, some are more likely than others.

Melanochromis can just be the most annoying, like a dog behind a fence that mindlessly barks at everything that moves. Even the "pseudo"-Meleanochromis Johanni types ( I've always thought they looked like they were imitating sub dominant Melanochromis). I had a Chipokae years ago who was the dominant fish but was never violent, but there wasn't another Melanochromis in the tank to get him riled up. Sometimes it is the mix of fish that makes Mbuna psycho.


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## Dawg2012 (May 10, 2012)

My Kenyi was pretty mellow.

Socolofi on the other hand, not so much. Finally got put in with the big boys cause he was a little jerk and he held his own for over a year at half their size.


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## Steve C (Oct 9, 2011)

My red zebras. I have 5 red zebras in with other mbuna in my 55g mbuna tank and the zebras are pretty much the trouble makers in there. They pretty much rule the tank and don;t like any "new guys" (they have killed two fish in the past year) and forced the relocation of another. The 5" zebra in this pic is the main one that likes to rumble. Also the OB peacock in the same pic is a trouble maker. Had to relocate him from the peacock tank to the Mbuna tank about 6 weeks ago because he had all 11 peacocks shoved into one corner of the all male peacock tank. He does pretty well in the mbuna tank though.


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## Cichlidman14 (Jul 17, 2013)

Steve nice OB peacock. Coloration looks great. He seems like a brute though the way you described him. And your red zebra looks great as well

Come on guys let's see some more pictures.


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## ozman (Sep 7, 2012)

Iggy Newcastle said:


> jlose600 said:
> 
> 
> > Without a doubt Melanochromis chipokae. I had a six inch male kill a ten inch nimbochromis venustus and a seven inch Kenyi male!!
> ...


 :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:


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## misterted (Sep 12, 2003)

They are living things so any can be ill tempered.
The ones with the best chance of being evil have been mentioned here already, Various Melanchromis, Kenyi's, Red Zebras are more often than not evil.
I had a demon Yellow Lab once. Kept a group of this usually docile Mbuna in my 125 with a lot of other groups and this guy killed every other Yellow Lab in the tank.
Go figure.


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## bpark83 (Aug 18, 2013)

Chipokae - about 5". Added him to the tank last, and while he is aggressive, really didn't have a problem until I re-did the rockwork recently. That made him want to reclaim a lot more territory than he previously had a hold on in the tank (I learned sometimes redoing/rearranging the rockwork actually makes things worse). He had cornered a big yellow lab and just beat it half to death. I was hoping it would recover when it got out, but the chipokae kept going after it and it was looking worse and worse. The next day there was no sign of the yellow lab, but some random body parts floating around and stuck to the powerhead and filter inlet. Basically the chipokae made a meal of the yellow lab. I just gave him away today because I had enough of it.


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## CrazyCoolCichlids (May 19, 2013)

Definitely auratus! I had one that I brought home from the LFS, put him in the tank and almost immediately he began harassing the other fish. He was returned to the LFS the next morning.


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## poseidons minions (Dec 1, 2009)

meanest mbuna for me is melachromis chipokae and they get big n nasty but very beautiful.


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## Cichlidman14 (Jul 17, 2013)

Seen pictures of melachromis chipokae, very beautiful and the colors on the males are stunning.


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## Lushaquatics (Sep 15, 2013)

Just like the human species, every so often, the gene pool goes haywire and throws out a "rogue" or "Psychotic" individual... THe Charles Manson of Labs! lol


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## Cichlidman14 (Jul 17, 2013)

Hah ha, that's right Lush


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## Pseudeotropheus BB (Jan 24, 2013)

As far as meanest they have all been mentioned and I have never had any interest in keeping any of those species. For me the single most aggressive fish I have kept is a Tropheops Chilumba. He was kept in a 100G all male mbuna tank roughly 18 years ago and was the tank boss until he was rehomed after 3+ years.


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## christy_lee (Jun 25, 2013)

This may sound really bizarre lol. I haven't kept any of the previously mentioned species but right now I have a peacock, an acei, and a lab...and my lab is by far the devil.


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## Cichlidman14 (Jul 17, 2013)

Really a lab, pour some holy water into that tank. Never really thought that labs would be overly agressive.


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## Eugooglizer (Oct 30, 2012)

Forgot to mention that when I used to have Kenyi, the dominant male would attack my arm and hands when I was vacuuming and cleaning the tank. I would actually have to trap him with a net in his little flower pot house if I expected to get any maintenance done.


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## Cichlidman14 (Jul 17, 2013)

Really, i've seen that happen once to a guy on youtube. He would try to clean the glass and the male kenyi would attack his and as well as shimmy it for dominance.


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## Michael_S (Aug 18, 2013)

binnyskyle said:


> Forgot to mention that when I used to have Kenyi, the dominant male would attack my arm and hands when I was vacuuming and cleaning the tank.quote]
> My juvenile Ps. crabro do the same. :lol:


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## Cichlidman14 (Jul 17, 2013)

Michael, post a picture/video of yours attacking your hand/algae scrapper. Would love to see it


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## bpark83 (Aug 18, 2013)

binnyskyle said:


> Forgot to mention that when I used to have Kenyi, the dominant male would attack my arm and hands when I was vacuuming and cleaning the tank. I would actually have to trap him with a net in his little flower pot house if I expected to get any maintenance done.


In an old marine tank, I had an ocellaris clownfish that would do that. :lol:


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## Michael_S (Aug 18, 2013)

Cichlidman14 said:


> Michael, post a picture/video of yours attacking your hand/algae scrapper. Would love to see it


Next water change I will try to get a picture, I usually wave them away. Its gonna be torture letting them do it, hahaha.


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## Cichlidman14 (Jul 17, 2013)

Okay good luck!


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## cichlid_crazy (Jul 24, 2012)

Really? Four pages of replies and no one has mentioned the Demasoni? By far the meanest IMHO.


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## ITALIAN926 (Jul 31, 2012)

My male Albino Socolofi rules all of my Demasoni.


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## Cichlidman14 (Jul 17, 2013)

Demanding i thought were only aggressive in their little group of hierarchical status. Though they are mean little buggers


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## Michael_S (Aug 18, 2013)

cichlid_crazy said:


> Really? Four pages of replies and no one has mentioned the Demasoni? By far the meanest IMHO.


I agree they are mean, but my demasoni were mean to each other for about a week and now they are very calm fish. But mine are in a single species tank. My most aggressive fish that I ever had was a maingano. It terrorized fish 2-3 times bigger than it.


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## Cichlidman14 (Jul 17, 2013)

That's what I was talking about before if u guys had a small little bugger who would take on your bigger cichlids in the tank.


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## kazfish (Aug 1, 2012)

Well, after reading all these posts, I am now a bit concerned. :-? I just took 11 Kenyi fry from a friend who did not have space to move them to a different tank. What size tank will be big enough to raise 11 Kenyi to adults and....if they grow up with each other....does it minimize the aggression when they become adults and start realizing who is a male/female? Thanks. --- Kaz


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## Cichlidman14 (Jul 17, 2013)

A 55 should be fine, though a 75 is better since they are extremely aggressive


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## Iggy Newcastle (May 15, 2012)

kazfish said:


> Well, after reading all these posts, I am now a bit concerned. :-? I just took 11 Kenyi fry from a friend who did not have space to move them to a different tank. What size tank will be big enough to raise 11 Kenyi to adults and....if they grow up with each other....does it minimize the aggression when they become adults and start realizing who is a male/female? Thanks. --- Kaz


6' tank.


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## GTZ (Apr 21, 2010)

Of more importance is the ratio of male to female. With 1 male and 7 or more females I'd try a 75g with lots of rock work. I wouldn't attempt 2 males. 3 males and 10+ females would require a 6' tank in my opinion.


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## kazfish (Aug 1, 2012)

Thank you. So if it turns out I raise 11 Kenyi in a 75 gal and 4 end of turning yellow (males) and 7 are females....you would get rid of the 3 extra males? I just want to clarify the best way to approach this.

If they grow up together - wouldn't the aggression be slightly muted?


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## Cichlidman14 (Jul 17, 2013)

Yes with 4 males there will surely be deaths.


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

kazfish said:


> If they grow up together - wouldn't the aggression be slightly muted?


Although I heard this when starting out, after 8 years I have not found it to be true.


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## Marconi (Oct 7, 2013)

I've kept a tonne of mbuna over the years. The worst without a doubt is the Red Cap Ndumbi. Not only are they relentless, they are incredibly tough. I have found Auratus to be horrible as well as Johanni/Maingano, BUT I have found that if you have a tough fish that will hold its ground and engage them...they back down rather easily. Nbumbi on the other hand will fight till the death. I had a male that turned the tables on a Rainbow Wolf Fish...no easy feat for a mbuna.


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## Habanero (Nov 20, 2013)

Mine is a 5" albino pseudotropheus socolofi. Although he is not the boss of the tank, he typically secures 3 territories in my 125gal tank by moving sand under rocks. He chases all but 2 of the other fish in the tank, and just emits aggression. He hasnt killed any other fish, but he sure keeps things stirred up. Knowing that he hasnt actually harmed another fish makes the tank exciting.


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## Cichlidman14 (Jul 17, 2013)

Hello, I just like to say that this thread has reached five pages or so I believe. Thank you for all your response's

-Joe


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## jcabage (May 29, 2012)

We've never kept any of the extra crazy fish long term, but we've had several bruisers.

The fish with the most KO's under his belt would have to be our dominant male demasoni. He has been through probably 12-13 male/female dems - the group seems to finally be stable now at 9, but nobody pushes him.

Other than that, we've had a red zebra that was impossible to keep females with. He's been through about 6 I believe and finally separated to an all male fate. Our male SRT Hongi has also been through 6 or so females too, but he is tolerating a select few at the moment.


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## anthony126 (Aug 6, 2014)

My Red Zeb male is a SOD! If he doesn't like a new addition forget it! He is the absolute ruler of the tank - Female breeds with him occasionally and hides the rest of the time. Have tried introducing more females but so far lost 3/4.

My Auratus don't do bad either coming a close no2 to the Zebs  I have a pair of Auratus who breed well but the female gets harassed so have tried introducing more females to give her a rest when she's pregnant - but they all get killed off every darn time!


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## Jimmer12 (Jul 24, 2013)

When I still had an mbuna tank it was definitely a tie between my male auratus and my big male kenyi. The only fish they didn't try to kill was each other. But when I had a pair of jewels start breeding they removed the kenyi from his home and no one crossed over to the jewels side of the tank.


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## Burner460 (Jul 24, 2014)

4.5" Male Cyaneorhabdos (Maingano). He pushes around everyone, including 4" female Auratus, 4" Male Socolofi, and 4" male Flavus. Had a breeding group of Maingano, and this one was one of their fry. Bullied his way to the top of the pecking order until he managed to get his "dad" to cower behind the heater. once he started trying to mate with the females i got the rest of them traded in to the LFS b/c the thought of him potentially mating with his mother and sisters weirded me out a bit...

Now he's the enforcer/peacekeeper in whats to become my 75G male show tank (possibly keeping the female Auratus in there b/c the colours are awesome and she's not the dominant fish).


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## nmcichlid-aholic (Mar 23, 2011)

Burner460 said:


> (possibly keeping the female Auratus in there b/c the colours are awesome and she's not the dominant fish).


You Might Want To Rethink This. An All-Male Mbuna Tank Is Going To Be Aggressive Enough (Especially With This Maingano You're Describing), So Leaving One Female In There For All Of Them To Fight Over Probably Isn't The Best Idea! It's Called "All-Male" For A Reason...


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## Burner460 (Jul 24, 2014)

nmcichlid-aholic said:


> Burner460 said:
> 
> 
> > (possibly keeping the female Auratus in there b/c the colours are awesome and she's not the dominant fish).
> ...


I agree, I am keeping an eye out on the tank, and she will most likely get rehomed once things start getting out of control...


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## fishboy85 (Apr 26, 2014)

This boy is the meanest in my tank 3 inch red zebra


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## fishboy85 (Apr 26, 2014)

https://www.flickr.com/gp/[email protected]/W0462n


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## Melanochromis (Mar 30, 2005)

The meanest Mbuna I've ever had are Tropheops males, I've had Red Cheek and Chilumba and I can honestly say IME that when you have a group of females for them the aggression level is off the chart, and sadly it was mainly the females who bore the brunt of it. On the plus side they are the most prolific mbuna I've kept in terms of breeding I had well over 100 fry in the space of a few months back in 2007.


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## rafini (Mar 20, 2014)

I think if I have learned anything over the years and on this thread its that sometimes the most aggressively evil fish isn't the species we would think. sometimes a less aggressive species like Labs or Socolofi get their way to the top of the heirarchy and they can be just as bad. ALso its possible to have Auratus and Kenyi that are not complete ******** that kill everyone.
Its all the luck of the draw.

I think stocking the tank well when the fish are not fully grow really helps too, adding fish to a fully grown Mbuna tank never really goes very well.

In the tank I had back in Europe the most dominant fish was a big Labeotropheus Fuelebornii (can't spell) that would never kill anyone, just be in charge. I had no psycho in that tank, it was just callainos, zebra 2 fuelebornii and a few haps. a moderate amount of aggression but no deaths.

My stepdad kept a tank and his psycho ******* killer was a male bumblebee that would just kill anyone and anything, the same tank had an auratus with 3 females who he eventually killed off, those two evils cancelled eachother out completely. But the bumblebee is in my opinion more evil than any other fish, plus they can get over 8" long and they know how to use their size.

When I was a kid my dad had an african tank and his dominant fish was a kenyi, but as far as I remember nobody died to the kenyi, he was just in charge. there was a socolofi in there two that was really mean.

Right now currently I have
4 kenyi ( 1m;3f) so far
A johanni
a red zebra
4 yellow lebs
3 metriaclima grasheikei
2 OB peacocks
1 kadango
1 red empress.

The red empress and kadango take turns being ********, they run the tank and will periodically chase fish but nothing serious.
Male kenyi mostly swims around on his own and flashes his fins at people.

All fish are around 1-2" and in a 120g

edit* I have 5 albino blackskirts in there too that I used to keep the bio alive before I started this tank and after I moved out my other cichlids to another tank. the Mbuna mostly ignore them, they make good target fish.


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