# lombardoi "Kenyi" Do they work in your tank ?



## Rykel (Aug 22, 2007)

I have a bunch of these guys in my tank and i 'd have to say thier slowly turning into terriorist's
Thankfully i have one very dominate male and he has his spot and mainly ony defends it against
the other Kenyi's in the tank.
So i'm trying to decide wheather i'm going to get rid of them or not , i have gotten rid of three johanni's who were just down right evil and i worry that these kenyi's could be alot worse from what i hear and since the Johanni's have left the kenyi's seem to be getting worse well the big guy is worse that for sure ...

So do any of you guys have any bad or good stories about keeping these fish , I'd like to hear them thanks.


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## quiksilver (Mar 2, 2007)

One nearly destroyed my mix tank, caused allot of stress and even killed a few fish. Now i know better.


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## iceblue (Apr 27, 2004)

If you thought your johannis were bad wait till the dominant kenyi decides he doesn't want to share the tank with other male lombardoi. You will end up with just one. If you have female kenyi I would suggest you give the dominant male at least 4 of them and remove the other males.

These zebras should be kept with other very aggressive Mbuna. They don't play well in the milder Mbuna tank.

I have an 84g long and am now down to just the one male. He's killed both the other males and ran the 2 females ragged.

What size tank do you have?


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## cater20155 (Jun 16, 2008)

I made the mistake of putting 2 in my tank when i first set it up, the LFS guy said they were only mildly aggressive....he was WRONG! The big male, 2.5 inches at the time, ruled my tank killing 2 others and chasing my red zebra all the time until it only stayed by my filter intake. I sent it to my uncles tank, where it got put in its place by some larger, 5+ inch, fish. Hes going to see how it works in there, but it could end up being flushed or given to a LFS as a reject. What a waste of a good colored male....


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## Rykel (Aug 22, 2007)

I have a 75g tank which is extremly over stocked wichi believe is helping curb the kenyi's aggression. I have several kenyi females and three males but only the dominant holds a area of the tank since i rearanged everything in the tank the other day. But this is what i worry about the three johanni's i had each had a spot in the tank and beat the **** out of everyone who dared go near any of the three spots lol ....So i can't have this happen again but considering the dominant male will let any of the small labs near his home or any of the smaller fish for that matter without a problem and he normally just chases other fish around , seems no one wants to tango with him except the giraffe livinistonii will mess with him..


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## jook1 (May 10, 2008)

I have one left, the female. I took back to the LFS the other male. I should've known better. I've been down this road before. They are alot like "auratus". Beautiful fish, but they will pester everything you have, until they're gone(the other fish). Always searching for that extra fin to nibble on. They seem to have a endless supply of energy to hate on other fish. My two cents.


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## PRSKILLER (May 26, 2008)

I have 1 dom male and 4 females for him (1 F is carrying). The other tankmates are 4 juvie yellow labs, 1 elec blue, 1 greshakei and 1 juvie angel squeaker. I only had to take back a sub-dom male that hid his color good but not good enough for the dom male. Other than that I have no major problems. Yeah he chases the females here and there but no kills.


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## Rykel (Aug 22, 2007)

Well i do have a new home for the Kenyi's now it's just a matter of weather i want to get rid of them or not.. I went out of town for a day two weeks ago and i never feed the fish for a day ,so i can home to minus three albino Bricharddi's , but it's hard to say if the kenyi's ate them or not but it goes to show you what happens if i don't feed my fish lol


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## boostspike (Apr 3, 2007)

I've had decent result with my male kenyi. He was about an inch when i put him into a tank full of adults mbuna. Maybe the trick is to put them in the tank while they're small and let the older/bigger fishes bully the kenyi around first.


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## TailorO (Apr 7, 2008)

is it only the males usually that cause problems? I have two females and they are really not very aggressive so far


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## Rykel (Aug 22, 2007)

Well i moved out the six Kenyi's i had and i'm glad i did move them out , things seem a lot more peacefull if there's such a thing lol....
My females were fine and didn't cause any trouble but the males were to controling of thier areas , it's nice to have things back to normal


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## tonyh67 (Jul 19, 2008)

If you get rid of the Kenyis and want to replace them with something that looks similar, you might try Pseudotropheus sp. "Blue Dolphin" (Ndonga). They're known to be much less aggressive.


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## Rykel (Aug 22, 2007)

I did find a replacememt Tramitichromis sp. Inderdedius and a couple of peacocks and i'd have to say i'm much happier with them .. I wish my city had a better selection of fish to chose from , it's slim pickings down here lol


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## Dewdrop (Nov 20, 2007)

It's not recommended for Kenyi to be kept in anything less than a 75g. tank. I didn't know this when I got mine and put a small male and a small female in my 55g. tank with some bigger malawi. After I read some about them I tried getting more females for the one male. I think I have 3 females now (had to take one back because it was turning male colored, no trouble from them but didn't want to take chances). I'm working on getting a bigger tank and if I decide to keep the kenyi, I'll try to get some more females. My male is about 3 inches now and still no problem from him. I think it might help to add them to bigger fish when the kenyi are small but maybe he just hasn't reached maturity yet.


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## iceblue (Apr 27, 2004)

> My male is about 3 inches now and still no problem from him.


At 3" he should be showing some signs of his aggressive nature. Chasing others ocassionaly and saddleing up with the females. The larger fish in the tank could be suppressing this but it won't last long once he reaches maturity and decides on a chunck of territory for himself. Thats been my experiance anyway.


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## jorgy (Nov 28, 2007)

I have a pair of kenyi as well in a 90 and he controls the whole tank. I love the colors but he is sure a @%$&*.


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## PRSKILLER (May 26, 2008)

My female Kenyi just dropped her fry. I salvaged 6 from the main tank and moved to a 10g tank. Guess I'll have a school of Kenyi soon. :fish:


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## Rykel (Aug 22, 2007)

It's too bad they won't be friendly down the road allthough the females are fine hows your male in your tank doing ?


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## Beals (May 12, 2008)

mine runs my tank even keeps a bumble bee that is the same size hiding and the rest of my fish only come out at dinner time, its time he gets a new home


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## PRSKILLER (May 26, 2008)

Rykel said:


> It's too bad they won't be friendly down the road allthough the females are fine hows your male in your tank doing ?


Well when they all mature and I find any males they will go to my lfs. My male is ruler in the tank but he's not that mean.


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## Rykel (Aug 22, 2007)

I found the my johanni were far worse than my Kennyi that i had , i found the johanni to be much more territorial and for some reason they would want to fight to the death ...
So after that experince and seeing my Kennyi getting closer to how the johanni were , i quickly disloved the situation 
I gave them to this guy i know and those are the only fish that he has in there , he says thier wild lol . There always fighting and breeding never a dull moment he says .... So i'm glad they have a new home and a happy owner hehe


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