# Bumble Cichlid Conflict



## mxg5299 (Oct 9, 2012)

I have a 36 gallon tank with:
-2 bumblebee cichlids
-2 jewel cichlids
-2 albino red zebras (pretty sure, got them from "assorted")
-1 firemouth cichlid

I've had this tank together for about a good 2 years now, and my 2 bumblebees randomly started attacking each other. It got to the point where one of them was lying on the ground, heavily breathing, and scales bit up. I quarantined the injured one, and it recovered in about a week. I put him back in, and the other bumblebee immediately went after it again. I took out the "bully" and put him in quarantine, where he is now. What should I do with the mean one? Why did they randomly start attacking each other after years of peace?


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## cichliddoc (Oct 15, 2013)

Cichlids whether mbuma, sa, nw, or any African, they all will go after the weak. I have 7" acei that hurt his eye, I thought it would be okay, put some salt in, raised the temp. Bam the next day I found a couple of my peacocks biting him and chasing. See big bad mbuma being beat up by two 3" peacocks. I would return him to the tank after rearranging stuff and see, you may have move him on. You know you have a pretty rough stock. A couple of no-nos.


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## Habanero (Nov 20, 2013)

I have a firemouth in my tank, and he is just wrecking havoc on my other fish. Yesterday, he really got into it with my african cichlids, and my 4.5" snow white attempted to put him in his place. The snow white pinned the firemouth to the bottom of the tank, and was biting him on his side. When the firemouth got up, he lashed out on some other african cichlids smaller than him, and then some of the larger ones let him know that was not OK with them.

I am still new to cichlids, but I spoke with the owner of a local fish shop who explained to me that for the most part, african cichlids communicate with one another via coloring in order to create their ranking order, while the central american cichlids use position / territory to establish dominance. Because these two use different methods, they cannot effectively communicate and resolve dominance issues, so they will impact one another in ways that increases aggression.

So I am removing my firemouth from my tank today, because I am seeing the exact problem that this fish store owner explained. The fish are not adjusting based on dominance, and this continues to create problems for them. The firemouth expects to hold a position of the tank, while the african cichlids expect him to adjust color and act more submissive after getting his butt kicked.

BTW, I have two bumblebee cichlids in my tank (I believe they are male and female) and they are doing awesome, and not displaying the behavior yours are. However, I have heard that the bumblebee's can be quite agressive.


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## BC in SK (Aug 11, 2012)

mxg5299 said:


> I've had this tank together for about a good 2 years now, and my 2 bumblebees randomly started attacking each other. Why did they randomly start attacking each other after years of peace?


Just a thought, based on having this species (bumble bee) for almost 4 years now and having had multiple males in the same tank for most of the time I have had them. I'm actually rather surprised to the extent that weight class plays in terms of where aggression is directed. Though most cichlids, IME, generally focus on fishes of similar size ( auratus often a notable exception to this!). I generally expect high conspecific aggression with most cichlids, but I found larger male bumble bee to be surprisingly tolerant of smaller males. I initially purchased 4 (3 males, 1 female). Initially, one male grew big and dominant; the other 2 males were small and were initially competitors, fighting frequently. One male was a runt and remained considerably smaller while the other small male eventually outgrew everyone and became the dominant male...... seen how that played out and the shift in where aggression was directed. I had 7 fry grow up in the tank (6 males, 1 female). At one time I essentially had 2 dominant males in the tank of different size; the larger not paying too much attention to the smaller until they were similar size! When the smaller dominant male became similar size to the 'runt', they starting fighting and he killed him. As he got larger, I had to make a choice and kept the younger dominant male.

Have your bumblebees always been of similar size?

36 gallon is a very small tank for your stock list. Any cichlid tank can change significantly over time. Pecking order can change and cichlids will fight to establish pecking order...especially over becoming 'top dog'.


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

I'd take out everything but the pair of jewels.


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## rmcder (Jul 9, 2005)

Beyond the communication issues, firemouths tend to be more aggressive than they can back up with action. As a result, with any truly tough fish, they get their butts kicked. Problem is, they seem to be too stupid to realize that they're all hat and no cattle, so they keep getting into scrapes.


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## BC in SK (Aug 11, 2012)

rmcder said:


> Beyond the communication issues, firemouths tend to be more aggressive than they can back up with action. As a result, with any truly tough fish, they get their butts kicked. Problem is, they seem to be too stupid to realize that they're all hat and no cattle, so they keep getting into scrapes.


Not at all the problem the OP is describing. Of course in 36 gallons all kinds of potential aggression issues with that stock list. 
Conspecific aggression always higher on the list of likely aggression issues!
The dynamics of any cichlid tank will change. With enough time, it always does.


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## mxg5299 (Oct 9, 2012)

I ended up donating the "bully" bumblebee to a local pet store. A guy there happily took him and said he had a 75 gallon where he would do fine. The other one ended up dying yesterday, and he looked pretty bad. He could recover once, but not twice. Oh well.


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## Floridagirl (Jan 10, 2008)

It's a very small tank for the stocking that you have. It usually works for a while, and then all heck breaks loose. I agree with the DJ Ransomme and pair of Jewels for stocking. Or start over with fish that have better odds for having a permanent home in a 36 gallon tank.


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