Hey guys, I am new to the Cichlid world. I have a 10 gallon tank a 4 cichlids. Things seemed to be going pretty good for about the first week and now a have a fish that is chasing around all of the other fish. I was thinking that this was probably stressing out the other fish. Is this okay, or should I do something about it and what?
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- Thread starter NickN
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hah, yeah. Start with getting a larger tank soon. WHat cichlids do you have exactly. Please don't tell me you have 4 oscars 
. But its okay, we'll work you through it. 
. But its okay, we'll work you through it. 
NOt sure off the top of my head what those two little suckers are but I'm gonna assume theyre some sort of assorted african cichlids. Kind of remind me of appistos though. Okay, what you can do isssssss, either get a larger tank and get a few more africans. Or you can return those africans and get a nice little group of about 6 gold or blue rams. Then when you've seen that they pair off, remove the other 4. But as far as what the people at the lfs told you, its completely wrong. Don't trust those 
Hmm...wow. The two yellowish ones appear to be Crabros, very nasty africans. You absolutely need to take all of them back, smack whoever told you they'd be okay together in that tank to knock some sense into her, and either get a much bigger tank and then stock it with compatable africans, or find a more suitable stocklist for the 10gal you have.
PLEASEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE Get a Larger Tank those two blue ones look like powder blue mbuna's. I have one of those. They will get pretty big and will not last in a 10 gallon for very long, you either need to get a bigger tank 55gallon+ or you should take them back and get either dwarf cichlids or rams. Make sure you research what you buy. Rams are very nice looking for a 10gallon. Also it is normal for one of your cichlids to be the dominate one, you will always have one that goes after the othres. If they start killing off one another it is becuase they are trying to find their equalibirum, they are very agressive fish and need to find their equalibirum - once they find that they will stop killing off one another and then you know that you can not add any more fish and if one dies its best to replace it so the process does not start over, I started with 7 and ended up at 4 which is where mine are happy. Hope all of that helps and enjoy your cichlids =)
'Powder blue' is far too generic a name for any blue mbuna. Yours do appear to be Cobalt Zebras (M. callainos), but a better, side profile shot of them is necessary to tell for sure. If so, then yes, they will easily reach 6" or 7" - my dominant male is 8". No way can these fish stay in that tank.
Cobalt Zebras are a brighter blue that fish looks like a lighter (not bright-like) blue it looks pretty much exactly like my powder blue mbuna (but then again it could just look like that b/c of the shadow from the rock its under) and generic or not that's what they are sold here as and is a common name , although it would be easier to tell if the you could post a better picture of it, maybe if we could see the whole fish it would be easier to tell.
I'm not exactly sure what you're calling a 'powder blue' mbuna...socolofi? Either way, the fish in that picture are exactly the right blue colour for juvenile or female cobalts 
