lumphead cichlid aggression?

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PeteJ

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Feb 19, 2006
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Cheshire, UK
I've had my little lumphead male for about 2 days now.
after some reading i was uder the assumption they are fairly docile (for cichlids)
and tbh he leaves my peacock goby (about 2.5cm long) alone, not even looking twice at the little fella.
the lumphead is about 10cm at the moment btw.
however he has taken a serious dislike to my young royal panaque! who is of a similar but smaller size!

he hurtles round the tank after the poor blighter and this morning has a bit of nibbled fin...

of all the things i didnt expect this was probably top of the list..

solutions in short term anyone?

30gallon transfer coming in the next few weeks which will give them both alot more space..
 
What type of fish is this "lumphead"? That's not a common or scientific name...
 
maybe the buffalo head?
 
My male steatocranus can be a little punchy on occasion. He guards his cave fairly actively from some fish - such as my adult ancistrus, but completely ignores others - he shares the cave with a young pim. ornatus.

Mine doesn't chase anything around the whole tank though, and if other fish stay out of his way he's fine.

One thing you could try is altering the amount of flow in your tank. Steatocranus like to be in very well oxygenated water, and they like a lot of movement, although they also like quiet spots to rest.

I recently doubled the size of pump in my tank, and the effect it had on my fish was instant and very interesting - shy fish (like my bristlenose) have become more brave, and twitchy fish (like my ornatus) have chilled out completely, gently swimming in the current all day.

If the current in your tank isn't that great, you should definitely consider increasing it. From what I've read, peacock gobies like a good current too.

Stick with the steatocranus, though - they are fantastic little fish, IMO.
 
ahh cool.
he was originally kept in a malawi tank before i purchased him so no wonder he's gone from being shy to a bit of a bully.

the peacock gobies have bitten the dust for no apparent reason, a f ew weeks ago both dropped off within 2 weeks of each other, no signs of bullying and water quality spot on.. must have been age i suppose.

the flow rate is average could do with upping it some more, but the tank is getting closed down in favour of a larger one shortly so i'll keep up my regular small water changes to keep it well oxoygenated and clean. and my little seatocranus can have the joys of a bigger tank and better flow in a few weeks!

btw would you happen to know the maximum attained size of this fella? i've heard 6 inches but never seen one anywhere near that size (new tank will happily accomodate him.. old 1 foot cube wont)

also has anyone kept shrimp or small shoalling fish with these cichlids succesfully?
 
I've only had my pair for a year or so, but I've heard 6" is pretty rare. Mine are only about 2 and 3 inches.

The positive thing is that once they are past their juvenile growing spurt, they seem to slow right down - mine are still getting bigger, but at such a gradual rate that there is no concern about it. Basically, you can see any size problems with them a mile off, so there is plenty of time to figure out a solution.

My guess would be that they are fine with most shoaling fish, because steatocranus hardly ever leave the substrate, so most tetras, barbs etc would be well out of their way. I suppose you could lose the odd one here and there if they strayed too close to a steato cave or something, but tbh I wouldn't be concerned about it. I certainly wouldn't describe mine as actively predatory, and I doubt they would actually hunt shoaling fish. Or hunt anything, for that matter!

Hope that sets your mind at ease - good luck with the new tank.
 
ahh ok then!

i was planning to move him up from my 1foot cube into a 2.5 footer but i might not quite have room for that tank so it might just be moved into a 1.5x1x1 tank so a tiny bit more water but not much.

I'd prefer to get him in the 2.5 footer and grow him up he's already got lovely markings and pristine scales and a fairly big lump on his bonce. but if he's going into the 2.5 foot tank i wanted to mix him in with some other fish as i've only ever kept cichlids (my other tank has a full grown oscar and 2 GT's) so would like to try some tough tetra or similar.

thankfully i've been testing out a few setups at my LFS (the minor bonuses of working for one is seeing what mixes without paying...) my only problem is we dont stock buffalo heads anymore!

always wanted to try some planting in one of my tanks but my little fella digs like a loon, by far THE worst digger i've had, within 20mins of putting him in the tank he'd moved 1/2 the sand and dug himself out a rather large cave.
but anyway.. have to see what tank i can throw him in next.


substrate wise what do you guys use? currently mines sat in coral sand and seems to love it (it does have a fair bit of bog wood in the tank though so must balance out the hardness etc)

sorry had a bit of a rambling essay there!
 
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