# Help! My fish won't stop fighting



## cdnshopaholic (Aug 11, 2007)

I need some help with my new 55 gallon setup. I originally had a 20 gallon tank with one red zebra cichlid (I believe female but I am not sure). I also had a 29 gallon tank with Yellow labs. My goal was go get a 55 gallon tank and combine all the fish into the one tank. I did that last week. Yay! LOL I thought there might be some issues as my red zebra is over 4 years old and she has always had a tank to herself (she has harassed any other fish that I tried in there to death), so I left the 20 gallon set up. 
All the fish have been in the new tank for over a week and things were going fine until Friday. The fish in the tank are as follows: 4 year old red zebra, 4 yellow labs approximately 1 year old and about 6 yellow labs from 6 months and younger (their babies), 1 5 year old pleco (not sure what kind) and 2 smaller catfish (again not sure what type). I am not sure what sex most of these fish are.
The red zebra and the largest of the yellow labs had a few minor scraps and the red zebra came out on top. She would randomly chase all the other fish but it seemed minor. Then, on Friday I noticed they were all ganging up on the pleco. I went over to the tank and realized they were biting his eyes which were all torn and bloody. I immediately moved him (and the 2 catfish) to the 20 gallon tank. He seems to be recovering nicely, but may have lost the vision in one eye.
Then, sometime last night there must have been another battle, as today the largest of the yellow labs is the tank 'king'. He is constantly chasing the red zebra every time he sees her. She is very scared and panicy and does not seem to want to fight back at all.
Any thoughts on how I can keep these fish together or should I just remove the red zebra and put her back in her 20 gallon tank? (Which means the pleco and catfish will be back in the 55 gallon with everyone else).


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## cdnshopaholic (Aug 11, 2007)

****...now I don't know who to move out. Now the largest yellow lab and one of the others are fighting and locking lips.


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## kewlkatdady (May 15, 2007)

pull all your rock out....

do a water change...

leave the rock out for a few hours...

put the rock back in...

this has worked for me on a few occassions and other times I had to add more fish to spread aggression and other times I've removed fish to get the bad apple out...


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## cdnshopaholic (Aug 11, 2007)

Thanks! I have removed the largest aggressive lab for the night and put him in the 20 gallon in the hopes that removing him from the females will calm down his aggression and he won't kill the pleco overnight. (Seems ok so far in both tanks). It looks like I will have to figure out how many males I have in the new tank sooner than I had hoped and give away some. 
Tomorrow I will try the 'removing rocks' trick.


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## cdnshopaholic (Aug 11, 2007)

So, everyone made it through the night alive. LOL Now that I have removed the largest yellow lab male the one it was fighting with is now chasing another fish. So, I think I can assume that of the 4 full grown yellow labs in the tank I must have 3 males and one female. (Plus the juveniles)
I am not very concerned about breeding as there is no store locally that will take the babies, so am not sure how hard it is going to be to get rid of them. 
Would it make sense to keep the 3 males and get rid of the female? And then as the babies mature keep another male (or more) from there? I would like to get some blue cichlids to add to the tank as well. 
I am mostly concerned with having a 'relatively' peaceful tank with a lot of colour and personality.


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