# Patrolling the corner



## Mighty (Feb 2, 2010)

Hey all, first post, happy I found such a great forum 

I'm not new to fishkeeping; however, I'm new to African cichlids. I finished cycling my 80 gallon tank and threw in 3 Kenyi cichlids and they had quite a few crevices and caves to take up camp in. I haven't put the finishing touch of live plants throughout the aquarium yet, so this may solve my issue, but until then, the best I can get is a few opinions.

The frusteration is I have given these three small ladies (all of them about 1 inch in length) a large tank to themselves for the time being, and they seem to spend a lot of their time swimming up and down a specific corner of the aquarium. They're been doing this a lot since I put them in last week. Other than that, they're doing great. I also just now put in three yellow labs at about the same length (a combination that seems to be working in harmony thus far) and they've actually chosen to school with the kenyi for the time being, and have taken up a similar habit of patrolling up and down this one corner of the aquarium.

I guess I just wanted to know if this was regular behavior for introducing new African cichlids to an aquarium? Or do they just need more caves/crevices/plantation to entertain them? Or is it something else?

I greatly appreciate any tips/opinions given! Thanks.


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## steelers fan (Jun 26, 2009)

yeah normal for a new tank.
i think its like a nervous tick.
should go away


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## GoofBoy (Jul 3, 2007)

Mighty - Welcome to the boards.

I have the heard the behavior you describe as being called pacing more than once - it is not abnormal.

I don't want you to be surprised in 8 months or so. Therefore, the only caution I will give is search the Malawi board for 'kenyi' and 'aggression'.

They are *extremely* aggressive fish and you currently have unsexed juvies. Ideally you would want something like 1 male to 5-8 females to spread the aggression from the male.

With Malawi mbuna and new fish keepers there is a bit of an unholy trinity of Melanochromis auratus, Pseudotropheus crabro, and Metriaclima lombardoi that LFS seem to always have in stock.

Ideally, these are all fish best kept in 6ft tanks in the 1 male to 5+ female ratio. A male of each species is a potential weapon of mass destruction - yes, I personally had a male Melanochromis auratus color up and wipe out an entire tank over a weekend while I was away.

Your tank, your stocking, but I wanted to make sure you had a heads up.

Good Luck.


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## scrubjay (Oct 25, 2009)

If you have lights, you might try turning them off for a while and see if that helps.

You need to be aware that you chose one of the most highly aggressive species of mbuna (the "kenyi") for your tank. Your fish are not sexually mature at this age and that is why they are getting along. When they reach sexual maturity, you might see a lot of aggression. The labs could suffer and you should remove any that are being bullied or that hide up in a corner or they may end up dead. The kenyi are not recommended for mixing with other mbuna species, but if they are mixed, they should be paired with other aggressive mbuna of similar or larger size. The best way to keep them is one male with at least three females.

Good luck with your little guys!


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