CA cichlid aggression

[cichlidfish]

All my cichlids range from 2-5" from convict hybrid to as aggresive as wilds unbie n festae. I went out and bought a 8" green terror to control the agression it did work now they're more mellow

Yeah it seems adding another aggressive cichlid helps sometimes. It is a hit or miss though. That is why I move fish around to see which combo works.

 

[cichlidfish]

I have only kept lake specific tanks as far as Africans go (Malawi, Tanganyika and Victoria) and I will have to say that I noticed must more intense lip locking at a younger age with the Africans then what I have noticed thus far with my CA/SA cichlids. The only lip locking that has gone on is when I added a JD and he had to establish his pecking order, so he lip locked with a female Nic (which he backed down to) and a smaller male GT (who he is now dominant over).

I haven't had any cichlids lip lock in a long time. I guess Africans are more likely to establish a pecking order and lip lock more often. Most of the cichlids I have had never lip lock and go for the kill. This means biting the under belly. The robertsoni is very seaky at this. She calmly swims up close to the other cichlid then bites. This to me is an attempt to kill rather then chase or establish a pecking order.

 

[jrrlbds7]

i think it all depends on the personality of the given fish...i have a midas now that I have to house by himself because he will kill everything, but when I first started out in the hobby about 7 years ago, I had a midas that could be kept in a community setting. if confronted, he wouldn't back down, but he didn't go picking fights.
so again, i think it depends on the fish

 

[cichlidfish]

i think it all depends on the personality of the given fish...i have a midas now that I have to house by himself because he will kill everything, but when I first started out in the hobby about 7 years ago, I had a midas that could be kept in a community setting. if confronted, he wouldn't back down, but he didn't go picking fights.
so again, i think it depends on the fish

I agree personallity and temperment greatly varries from fish to fish. When I select a cichlid at the LFS I never pick the cichlid attacking all of the others. I made that mistake with the cyano I had. She was picking on all of the others in the tank and she only got worse with age. I did the opposite w/ my JD and he is really laid back and not aggressive at all. Of course he could snap and go completely psycho some day, but hopefully not.

 

[rich_one]

Honestly, slight overpopulation has worked for me, so long as I did not have any mated pairs of anything in the tank. Of course, there are exceptions, so common sense should apply. Certain fish, such as red devils/midas... trimacs... dovii.... etc., are simply going to most likely become the nastiest fish in the tank, to the point of wiping all the others out, unless you have a REALLY massive tank.

-Rich

 

[cacichlids]

I had this dominant male Salvini and his sibling that used to rule the grow-out tank. Got rid of the sub-dominant male and now the dominant male lost his color and gets picked on at by a female Blue Acara considerably smaller than him lol... wondering when he'll snap and shred her face.

 

[cichlidfish]

I had this dominant male Salvini and his sibling that used to rule the grow-out tank. Got rid of the sub-dominant male and now the dominant male lost his color and gets picked on at by a female Blue Acara considerably smaller than him lol... wondering when he'll snap and shred her face.

Isn't that funny about that dominant male sal getting picked on by a BA? I hope he doesn't snap. It seems sometimes they lose their confidence in being dominant for no reason. The tides can turn at any point and I'm trying to figure out the "triggers" for the change.