Juvenile Cichla behaviour ?'s

[The True Guapote]

Okay, I've never maintained a school of Cichla before and I am noticing some interesting behaviour and wondered if I just showed up late to the party.
I bought 3 originally from TFD, well unfortunately two of them died so I had one left and got 4 more from Rapps. They all lived (no surprise there, Jeff Rapps has the highest quality fish I've ever bought). Well my TFD Tem has a little size on the other four. He does something kinda weird, like he'll kind of bump into the other four. Is he showing them dominance I guess? I've kept mainly CA cichlids and I know they will jaw lock with eachother to show dominance. Kinda of neat..

 

[famous323]

Okay, I've never maintained a school of Cichla before and I am noticing some interesting behaviour and wondered if I just showed up late to the party.
I bought 3 originally from TFD, well unfortunately two of them died so I had one left and got 4 more from Rapps. They all lived (no surprise there, Jeff Rapps has the highest quality fish I've ever bought). Well my TFD Tem has a little size on the other four. He does something kinda weird, like he'll kind of bump into the other four. Is he showing them dominance I guess? I've kept mainly CA cichlids and I know they will jaw lock with eachother to show dominance. Kinda of neat..

If your tem is bumping the other guys too much and they’re not responding back if I were you I would remove the tem immediately I’ve keep quite a few juveniles and tems/pinimas tend to kill other sp of cichla so please be careful, orinos on the other hand are bullies themselves but as for monos,ocells, kelberis etc… they can’t fend for themselves as an orino just some friendly advice!

 

[The True Guapote]

I hope its nothing that serious, I've only got one tank. They're all Temensis, they're not stressed and he isn't doing it constantly, it maybe has a little more body size on him than the others, but you can tell which one is the one I've had longer.

 

[famous323]

I hope its nothing that serious, I've only got one tank. They're all Temensis, they're not stressed and he isn't doing it constantly, it maybe has a little more body size on him than the others, but you can tell which one is the one I've had longer.

Oh ok maybe its just establishing its dominance all tems should be fine together!

 

[The True Guapote]

Good to know...I find it interesting that there seems to be a leader and it was the biggest, but he was also in the tank a week prior to the 4 new ones I got.

 

[famous323]

Good to know...I find it interesting that there seems to be a leader and it was the biggest, but he was also in the tank a week prior to the 4 new ones I got.

Yeah he’s letting the boys know “this is my tank!”

 

[orinocensis1]

yeah thats all it is.. nothing to be worried about that is in their nature.. how big are they btw?

 

[The True Guapote]

Well the size I've bought them all at sold as 3", but I'd say my biggest is probably 3.5-3.75" and he/she is quite a bit bulkier than the other four. The biggest takes the lion's share of the food and is the most outgoing of the other four, kinda like the leader of the pack in many ways now that I think of it. I posted pics in the pbass media lounge on the stickied thread, they're small right now but I don't think thats going to last long because I feed them a lot and often, the only time you don't see them fat is early in the morning because I can't feed them all night

 

[silverdragon]

Classic cichla behaviour, we've discussed this numerous times and you've got nothing to worry about, once you start to keep a "pack" of cichla they will flare and man up to each other to establish a pecking order and an alpha male, it's all good bradda

 

[The True Guapote]

thanks all for the replies, I can really see why people love these fish now that I have some. I've had florida hybrid pbass in the past and I've usually wound up selling them before they ever get any size on them. I decided when I got into pbass again that I would see them to the end. Now pbass are the only thing I want, they're even in my dreams!