Which is the most aggressive out of the 7 cichlids listed ?
- Thread starter Predator07
- Start date
Everyone has different stories for every species. I'd never recommend anyone to keep say a dovii in a community setting(anymore), I've first hand seen both ends of the name dovii.
Personally I'd say pound per pound a convict is one of the most aggressive Cichlids out there. You won't find many fish that will take on another fish 10-30x their own size and still win in the end.
It also depends how the aggression is expressed.
There can be species showing the same level of aggression with different outcome.
I had some bad experience with grammodes. They were my fault. The tank was to small and I misjudged their type of of aggression.
Some cichlids do a lot of chasing, fin nipping and lip locking. They just want their opponents to leave their territory. And then there are fish like grammodes who don't take any prisoners. They directly try to damage their opponents by ramming them in the side or even worse in the gills. Or they try to bite chunks out of them.
So an Amphilophus might even show a higher level of aggression compared to grammodes but the outcome might be less worse.
There can be species showing the same level of aggression with different outcome.
I had some bad experience with grammodes. They were my fault. The tank was to small and I misjudged their type of of aggression.
Some cichlids do a lot of chasing, fin nipping and lip locking. They just want their opponents to leave their territory. And then there are fish like grammodes who don't take any prisoners. They directly try to damage their opponents by ramming them in the side or even worse in the gills. Or they try to bite chunks out of them.
So an Amphilophus might even show a higher level of aggression compared to grammodes but the outcome might be less worse.
100% agree with this.
This is why I choose thorichthys species for community tanks. They mostly chase and intimidate. In nature they live in groups and don’t get huge so don’t need 300g+.
Grammodes is a solitary predator. They don’t establish hierarchies. Any other cichlid would be competition for food, so they look to eliminate.
Some very aggressive cichlids do live in groups too. Mayans, Vieja types, and some amphs will I believe. The difference is they have more space in the wild. Put them in a small tank and behavior changes.
People will keep trying to mix these aggressive fish and it will never work in the long term unless really large tank. Especially noobs or people who never learn for mistakes or others..
