Hi everyone! I ended up getting the 125-gallon tank as I got somebody to check the floor out and everything was okay. I added the fish about 2 days ago, and I chose African cichlids. I have a pair of red zebras, a pair of cobalts, a pair of yellow labs, 1 electric blue Maingano, and 1 demasoni. I am seeing a lot of aggression from the demasoni towards one of the cobalts (female) and he is chasing her and flaring his fins) is this normal breeding behavior? I am also seeing them do a lot of chasing and digging sand burrows. Is this just because they are getting ready to breed or do I need to add more females to the tank?
125 gallon cichlid tank aggression!
- Thread starter HDFish
- Start date
You have too few fish and they are new so dominance has to be worked out. I would add atleast 4-5 females for each group and only a single male for each. Having all males or too many and not enough females will lead to problems. Some say demasoni need to be in big groups of 12+ other say they can work with a single male with 4-5 females.
Pairs typically never work out, one will normally kill off the other.
Malawi cichlids are not pairing fish and it is suggested that you stock as 1 male to 5 or 6 females to reduce aggression depending on the species.
What you need to ask yourself is what are your plans for this tank? Your current stock list has some species that will cross breed with the yellow labs so you will end up with fish that you should not distribute to other hobbyists since there are already too many in the hobby.
It is common for Lake Malawi cichlids to move sand around in the tank and to chase each other as they are trying to establish territories.
What you need to ask yourself is what are your plans for this tank? Your current stock list has some species that will cross breed with the yellow labs so you will end up with fish that you should not distribute to other hobbyists since there are already too many in the hobby.
It is common for Lake Malawi cichlids to move sand around in the tank and to chase each other as they are trying to establish territories.
I would rehome the red zebras for 2 reasons: they cross breed with yellow labs and they are Metriaclima...like the cobalts. The two will crossbreed and/or fight. Also what they said.
A lot of good advise provided. The only item I might add is to "beef up the hardscape". A well designed & constructed hardscape is a major factor in managing Mbuna aggression.
There are numerous on line sites dealing with African hardscapes, plus plenty of MFK members with African Community tank pics.
There are numerous on line sites dealing with African hardscapes, plus plenty of MFK members with African Community tank pics.
……… and make sure that the bio filtration in your new tank is capable of handling the bio load that you are now considering.
Thank you! What should I do moving forward? The demasoni are really hard to sex so I am not sure I will be able to get females. I’m not exactly sure they are called demasonis anywase I just looked them up and that matched the picture. The seller said they were called lamp.trots but I can’t find that name on google lol. Anywase I don’t care if they cross breed as I am not selling the babies.
