Yellow lab problem!

[napp]

Heyy guys, im having a little problem on my 100g african tank i got all males in there other than 2 yellow labs 1 male n the other 1 a female. i noticed that recently the male lab is hiding a lot and sumtimes i see him getting chased by 1 of the males in the tank and sumtimes even the female lab chases him down causing sum bite marks on his fins and such... what could be the problem here??? the tank has been set up for at least 4 to 5 months and only now this problem came up..

any help would be greatly appreciated im running out of ideas.

 

[wrslrcichlid]

Well IME there is usually more aggression in an all male tank, but it doesn't normally result in damage unless two fish are stubborn about being the tank alpha. There are a variety of reasons why he might have started getting picked on, but you need to watch him close. If he is the only fish getting picked on then they will likely not stop until he is dead. You may need to move him to a quarantine tank for a bit to let him heal and then reintroduce, which unfortunately does not always fix the problem. Also you really need to find a new home for the female yellow lab. She may not be getting picked on now, but as your fish reach sexual maturity she will have all of the male fish in your tank trying to mate with her. That means lots of chasing and harassing - which will likely end in her death because there will never be a break.

 

[C L O W N K N I F E]

I agree, if you don't remove him, they are going to continually put stress on him until he eventually dies. It sounds to me like he is the weaker one...it also sounds like you could use some more females in the tank to lessen the aggression between all the males; that is just my opinion though.

& if you hate to get rid of him, then you could always put him in another tank for the time being until he gets bigger and/or can hold his own.

 

[napp]

sounds good i didnt want to put him in 1 of my other tanks but i dont think there will b any other options. thanks for the heads up i keep u guys updated on what happens.

 

[sprezzatura]

Labs tend to be less agressive than some other malawis and can get picked on. Also, even when not stressed they often like hanging out in small rock crevices and spaces.