# Very Aggressive Blue Cichlid



## hailtopitt78 (Dec 2, 2008)

I came home from a holiday weekend and found one of my cichlids' fins very chewed up and awfully sick looking(it's a silver and black vertically striped fish)...I need to pick up another tank to try to nurse him back to health.

He and a brightly colored blue cichlid with brown spots on his fins, have been fighting alot lately...and now the blue cichlid is chasing after a yellow lab.

It's a 70g tank with plenty of hiding places, but it seems after a year or two..this blue cichlid has grown up and become very aggressive. Any advice? I don't want to lose any other fish.


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## smellsfishy1 (May 29, 2008)

You can try and nurse the fish back to health in another tank but what about when you put it back in the main tank with the bully. It will be subjected to the same stress.
One has to go or you need to revamp the tank in a new way(new setup with more hiding places, more tankmates/less tankmates). There is till no guarantee using this method.
You can try to control/disperse the aggression or eliminate it from the tank by finding a new home for a fish or two.


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## hailtopitt78 (Dec 2, 2008)

I tried moving around the rocks and rearranging the tank a bit..but no luck.
I believe the aggressive fish is a Labeotropheus fueleborni, which seems a bit out of character for the species...the sick fish was a dominant zebra in the tank...I bought these fish from a neighbor who moved about 8 months ago, so I'm unsure how old any of the fish are.

Any advice for trying to give the fish away? Aside from adding a pleco to the tank and losing a rusty about 2 months ago, the fish have all been healthy and very colorful until this most recent event.


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## smellsfishy1 (May 29, 2008)

My experience with lab. fueleborni is the same as yours. At times mine is absolutely relentless.
Mine killed a very hearty socolofi and red zebra in one week.
I think they are one of the more territorial mbuna aside from the melanachromis species.
I would see if a LFS would hook you up with some trade/in-store credit. If not post the fish in the trading post here, aquabid, craigslist, or ebay. Try and get something for it, it is a very beautiful fish I'd like to add.  
If not, I'm sure the LFS would take it as a donation or an enthusiast would take it as a gift (free of charge) .
Good Luck to you.


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## hailtopitt78 (Dec 2, 2008)

Just a shame, because like you said...it's an absolutely beautiful fish.


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## cichlidaholic (Dec 7, 2005)

hailtopitt78 said:


> I believe the aggressive fish is a Labeotropheus fueleborni, which seems a bit out of character for the species...


Not out of character at all...They can be a nightmare if the stocking choices aren't the best.

What you need to do is identify all your fish...You can post pics in the unidentified section to do so, or you can browse through the profiles. But it's really important that you figure out what you've got so you can figure out how to solve the problems you are having. Stressed fish turn into sick or dead fish, so the success of your tank depends on getting the stock list straightened out.

How many fish total? What size are they? Do you know if they are all mbuna?

Is this an all male set up?

You may have to work on your stocking a bit before returning the injured fish to the tank, but it is likely that if the tank isn't stocked right, the aggressive one will just direct his attention towards another fish now.

Tank dynamics change as the fish reach sexual maturity. This is probably why everything has been okay up until now. :thumb:


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## hailtopitt78 (Dec 2, 2008)

I have a large Metriaclima etherae (probably 6 inches)
1 labetropheus fueleborni (about 4 inches)
2 zebras (1 young one and the injured larger one)
2 Labidochromis caeruleus a smaller guy who's about 3 inches and a bigger one (maybe a different species who's about 4 inches) may be a pseudotropheus flavus .
1 pleco
1 catfish.
and another cichlid which I'm not sure about..I'll try to post a picture when I get home...he's about the same size as the lab fueleborni..but with darker blue (almost black body) with yellow fins, very passive fish. Could be a pseudotropheus acei.
Not sure about the sexes.

I had a rusty before as well, but he died a few months back...not sure what happened, didn't look like aggression injuries.


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## cichlidaholic (Dec 7, 2005)

Do you think you have mostly males?

The tank is sorely understocked, and this may be contributing to your aggression problems. However, if you are interested in breeding, you might want to clear out either the zebra types or the estherae, and build on the groups of your remaining species.

Overstocking a tank is helpful with these species, but you're going to need to decide where you want to go with the tank first.

If you want to go all male and don't care about breeding, you're going to need to be able to sex them and remove all females. (Even one female in this bunch could cause the problems you're seeing now.) You don't want any males that closely resemble each other.

If you want to breed, I'd choose 4 species max, and make breeding groups from those species. They are harem breeders, meaning one male requires multiple females.

I really do believe your stocking choices are causing your problems, and will continue to cause problems.


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## hailtopitt78 (Dec 2, 2008)

Like I said, I purchased the tank and fish from a neighbor...so there was no real masterplan for stocking...just trying to maintain the communinty as it was...and still pretty new to this. Any advice is very much appreciated. There really isn't a very good local fish store nearby to help or give advice. Unfortunately, it appears as though clearing out the zebras won't be an issue much longer.


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## cichlidaholic (Dec 7, 2005)

You should check the trading post to see if any breeders have anything for sale in your area.

Sexing them isn't easy, so the all male set up can be quite the challenge. An all male mbuna set up can be kind of boring, as well, once you successfully remove all the females. They don't tend to have much to show off about once the girls are gone. But, some of the dimorphic species can make it a little easier to choose more males...

On the other hand, breeding groups tend to be a bit more peaceful (if you get your male / female ratios right) and are easier to care for as far as injuries and things like that go...But, they breed, and then you have fry to deal with, because even if you leave the moms in the main tank, some will survive. Because of this, and if there is any possibility of you ever distributing fry from the tank, you need to be careful of the species you choose, as some will hybridize (Yellow labs may cross with the estherae, etc...)

It's never simple with aggressive fish, and it can often be a mess when you inherit a tank with fish already in it, especially if the person who had it before didn't do their homework. :roll:

You can try just adding more fish for an overstocked effect, but you want to make sure you have adequate filtration on the tank, and good tank maintenance habits. This may lower your aggression level, but you're still going to have to be careful what you add, as some are more aggressive than others, and some are considered problem fish in smaller tanks...If you don't shoot for breeding groups, then just don't salvage any fry from the tank for distribution.

That's not really a good recipe for success, but since you say you don't have access to much in your area, you might not have the luxury of being picky.

If you really like the fish and want to give it a good try, go with 3 or 4 species and the breeding groups, or go all male and add more males, without adding any that look similar to each other.


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## hailtopitt78 (Dec 2, 2008)

how many additional fish would you suggest I add?
Thanks again for all of your help...looking at the cookie cutter suggestions, it seems I'm going to need atleast 8 more fish...maybe 4 acei and 4 labs???


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## smellsfishy1 (May 29, 2008)

What are the dimensions of the tank? If it has a nice footprint you can pack a fair number of fish in there.


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## cichlidaholic (Dec 7, 2005)

The first thing I would do is make sure you've got accurate id's on the ones that you have.

Then, list your tank dimensions.

You need to decide what you want to keep and what needs to go. (I do agree that adding more Yellow labs at this point might help, but I wouldn't throw another species in just yet until you decide what you want from this tank.)

Acei are great fish, kind of passive as far as mbuna go, and they school, which is a great distraction in a tank with other more aggressive species. They do get quite large, though - a 6-7 inch acei isn't uncommon. I think they would be a good addtion, but lets see what the dimensions of the tank are first!


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