Cichlid exhibiting signs of major boredom!

[Too Many Choices]

I've had a Jewel cichlid for a couple of weeks in a 3ft tank with some Yellow tail Congo tetras, and an African butterfly (you might have seen my thread on it).

As of this afternoon, it's been swimming from the front to the back of the tank along one of the sides of the tank, up and down, and up and down for about the last 20 minutes, perhaps longer! It seems like it's trying to swim out of the tank

!

Could this be boredom

, the cichlid is solo (and I have a feeling it's a female as it looks quite plump), without the opportunity to breed or pair. I can't help but think that without any territory being stressing it's just got completely bored!

Any opinions on what this could be and how to remedy it?

It's frustrating because the amount of big solo cichlids you see kept in tanks with nothing but gravel

I like to think I've made an interesting habitat for it, with caves, plants, fallen leaves etc.

The only way I can think to relieve this type of boredom would be to add something like a similarly sized male kribensis. There wouldn't be any breeding and there's two fairly well defined territories in the tank. However I really didn't want to add any more fish to this tank!

 

[Spicy Frog]

The jewel would probably dominate the kribensis, solving the problem until the more docile krib dies from stress. Maybe try a convict. More more the equal for a jewel.

 

[Too Many Choices]

I'm sticking with all African fish, that's why all I can really think of is kribensis.

Do you think that the jewel would really give the kribensis that much of a hard time.

 

[duanes]

A jewel will easily dominate and kill kribs.
You could get a male jewel, but if they were to spawn they would probably take out (kill)everything in the tank.
But other than spawning, evading predators, and eating what else do fish do?