So it appears that my little 2.5" Firemouth is the leader or my superhero squad of ciclids. It started with him flaring at the introduction of a 1" Acei Cichlid about 2 months ago (he was about 1.5"), I figured it was a territory thing, but the next day the Acei was following my Firemouth. This continued with future introductions of a Pearl Cichlid and this Mondays recent introduction of a Green Terror. He has 3 fish that now follow him, when he stops they stop, when he goes they go, if one wanders off he gathers them up with his "flare tactics". He is a 2.5" fish leading a 3" GT, 3.5-4" Pearl and 1.5" Acei, its pretty awesome. There is also a Female Jack, Oscar and Severum in the tank which are not members. Before this he often schooled with my tinfoil barbs. Is it normal/common for cichlids of different species to do this?
Cichlid Groupies
- Thread starter eatingleg4peanut
- Start date
That's a pretty big stock!? What size tank are these guys in?
This never happened in my experience. My cichlids always claimed territory. And stayed on their sides unless a challenge was going on.
I had a flowerhorn, jag, and two texas in my 125 a few years back and my flowerhorn and jag actually paired off (flowerhorn was infertal = no fry) and they took the left side of the tank and my texas (which never produced eggs, my assumption was that they were the same sex) stayed on the right side of the tank. And i had an RTC in there along with them (grew it out for my lfs) he stayed in the middle and almost kept everyone in check.
Depending on tank size, it just might be a territory thing, where the firemouth won rights to that territory and the fish that "school" with him just subdued to the territory and challenge and now the firemouth allows them to follow him.
This never happened in my experience. My cichlids always claimed territory. And stayed on their sides unless a challenge was going on.
I had a flowerhorn, jag, and two texas in my 125 a few years back and my flowerhorn and jag actually paired off (flowerhorn was infertal = no fry) and they took the left side of the tank and my texas (which never produced eggs, my assumption was that they were the same sex) stayed on the right side of the tank. And i had an RTC in there along with them (grew it out for my lfs) he stayed in the middle and almost kept everyone in check.
Depending on tank size, it just might be a territory thing, where the firemouth won rights to that territory and the fish that "school" with him just subdued to the territory and challenge and now the firemouth allows them to follow him.
I dunno but thats awesome...closest thing I have is a little 1.5-2" convict that hangs out with my 5-6" senegal bichir all day long.
eatingleg4peanut;4584929; said:
Ahh... Once you move them to a bigger tank they probably won't do it anymore. But who knows, I had a Red Devil in with my Piranha (Red Devil got beat bad by another RD and i thought he was a goner, the other RD would have killed it for sure and the only place i could put it was with the P, the RD recovered to my disbelief) and they lasted for 6 months. The RD would swim around the P and eat with him, then moved them to a 55 and he didn't last a week
let just say i found half an RD and one full P.It definately wont last since the Firemouth and Acei are staying in the 55 when the others go to a 125.