my choco cic has a strange habit. he is consistently prowling below the surface of the water, with his head pointing up. like when fish gulp at the surface when there isn't enough aeriation in the water. but he doesn't gulp, just hangs there for a while. he's eating regularly (has a big appetite, reminds me of an O) none of the other fish are doing this. (GT, O, and Inc. cat), lots of surface movement and water pars are all within tol. is this a common behavior for this kind of cic? the ones at the store were doing it to, guy said they were just getting used to the water, but i've had mine for 3 weeks now (in a fully cycled tank)
chocolate cic behavior
- Thread starter KurseD
- Start date
what kind of lid do you have on the tank? is it a glass lid and if so are there any spots of algae or anything on the lid? I'm wondering maybe it's seeing something just above the surface that it thinks might be some kind of food (insect for example). if it's eating normally and otherwise doesn't look sick then I wouldn't worry too much. are there lots of air bubbles on the water surface and if so does it appear to be following them? again if so it could be thinking the air bubbles are food. as you can probably tell, I'm thinking it's probalby some sort of hunting behavior. 
there are alot of bubbles on the surface of the water, but they don't move about randomly.the water drops straight down from the outake hose, with a clearance of 1in from exit to surface of water (to get that extra aeriation) so the bubbles go straight down then float back up. i use a glass hood, its usually pretty wet due to the condensation/evaporation from the light. hmmm...that could be it. but yeah, your right, it does seem like he's hunting...it's just that he always does it, i've seen other cics do it, but usually only when i go near the tank and give them the dinner time signal...
Mine does the same thing. I noticed her doing it a lot in the store, and when I brought her home, she seemed to keep it up. I've only had her for about a week now, and I just moved her into a new tank last night...but I believe she had started to do it less in the temp. tank she was in. I'll have to see how she is after she adjusts to her new tank.
mine does it all the time, kinda like he's waiting to be first in line at the next feeding.
i've had him about a year and it seems to be normal thing.
i've had him about a year and it seems to be normal thing.
Ive noticed my chocolate cichlids do the same thing. a couple times after i have fed my fish freeze dried blood worms, the chocs will hang at the top and jump up a little and grab any food that might be on the lip of the tank.