Honeymoon is over

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S

Soggy

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Oct 27, 2010
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Seattle
I started keeping Cichlids back in June and up until now everything has gone near perfectly, haven't lost any fish or even had anyone get sick. Until Yesterday that is... as I was feeding my fish something seemed off so I started looking around the tank and sure enough my favorite female Kenyi is stuck to the filter beaten to death. The part that ticks me off is nothing was out of the ordinary and now nothing is out of the ordinary, just at some point in between feedings a fish got beat to death in my mostly peaceful tank.

And I was really enjoying my loseless record :irked:
 
I was never super successful with african cichlids. I had some kenyi in a tank once and I have never seen as much agression between fish as the male to a female. So I put a divider in the reduce agression and the female just beat herself against the wall till I took it out. Crazy fish..... :screwy:

In other words... I'm sorry for your loss. Every streak has to end sometime :cry:
 
This is the tank, it's a 55


P1010007.jpg



in the tank are

2 yellow labs

2 red zebras

5 Johanni

3 Kenyi

1 electric blue hap

1 sailfin pleco

I now understand that this might not be the most compatible group of fish for this tank. When I started this tank I didn't fully grasp the ins and outs of keeping cichlids and may have bought a swarm of fish without doing any research. However so far these fish have gotten along fine and still seem to be doing OK, my male yellow lab is in charge followed buy my big Red Zebra and then the Johanni's. The kenyi's are at the bottom of the pecking order with the small red zebra and small yellow lab.
 
I can't think of anything about your livestock that causes alarm. The hap is a little bit of a one-off, but those Mbunas are commonly keep together.

Its hard to say what happened. You have good, open swimming space and hiding spots.
 
Something my dad told once has never failed me yet if you have live stock you will have dead stock. On the plus side you did pretty good.
 
I spent a few hours last night enjoying my tank and it looks like the male Kenyi is the problem. My male Kenyi has hit a growth spurt and moved up a few rungs in the pecking order, last night he was harassing both females till they were cowering in the corners. One thing i saw that was fascinating was my larger Female Kenyi when harassed would then hang out near my dominate Johanni who doesn't tolerate the male Kenyi.

The male has gotten a lot brighter and has a bright green spot on each gill cover. When he goes after the female he will pull up parallel to her but facing the opposite direction and then flare his fins for a moment before furiously chasing her around the tank that often ends in a fight on the bottom that sends my gravel flying. Will a male Kenyi harass the females to death for no reason or does he want to breed and the females aren't receptive?
 
he will definitely harass the female to death.... literally, I had a kenyi male and female, had to separate the female because she was beaten up pretty good, had to put her in the grow out tank until she got better.... the flipside of this story when she got all better I put here back in the main tank, the next day... found the male beaten to death under a rock.... I geuss she got her revenge!
 
3 female are the bare minimum number of females to one male for Kenyis as well as mbunas in general. Also, your females might also be a male in disguise...
 
ecoli73;4867111; said:
3 female are the bare minimum number of females to one male for Kenyis as well as mbunas in general. Also, your females might also be a male in disguise...
Click to expand...

I've begun planing for "Operation Sneak in the Ladies" to boost my female ratios. Last time I introduced new females they barely survived the freshmen hazing. This time I think I'll do a large number to help spread out the aggression, I'm thinking 2 Yellow labs, 2 Johanni, and 2 Kenyi. It's gonna throw off my blue/yellow fish ratio but I'll manage somehow. I'll sneak them in at night after the parents have gone to bed and I'll leave the lights off for a few days maybe turn the temp down a bit and feed a little extra to keep every one calm and happy.
 
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