Please Help Me With Cichlid Aggression Issues

Kindra775566

New member
Hello
Please help me with Cichlid aggression issues. I have a 65 gallon tank which I’ve had for about 1 year now. All my cichlids (African) started out as babies and now are getting pretty big! I’ve never really had any aggression issues that caused any huge problem but these past few weeks haven’t been fun :(.. I have lost 3 fish in the past 3 weeks due to aggression. Same thing has happened: I turn on my lights to find one of my fish completely beat up, tail basically gone and other fins all bit up. They usually pass away by the next night. I am heartbroken!
I do not want to lose any more fish so I am here looking for advice on aggression issues. I have a pet camera set up as I am looking for who is my aggressor and I plan to remove them.. any other advice to prevent any of my other fish becoming aggressive like this?
 

OB Guy

Administrator
Sorry to hear you're having aggression issues in your Cichlid tank. What species of African Cichlids do you have in the aquarium? How many fish are in the tank? Is it a mix of males and females? Can you post a picture of your aquarium? Welcome to Cichlidaholics.
 

Kindra775566

New member
If I am being honest I am not sure which type of African cichlid they are— I just know they all have ever been listed as “African” and all look similar in their shape.. I can get a picture of all of them later tonight :).. currently I now have 8 cichlids- I know I have atleast 1 male for sure & 1 female for sure (I had a baby who was born a few months ago!)..
 

OB Guy

Administrator
After you post a couple pictures we can try to figure out what fish and how many males and females you have and see how the tank is setup. Sometimes just adding or rearranging things can help with aggression. There's also some species that won't do well together no matter what you do.
 

OB Guy

Administrator
The two yellow and black striped fish look like Bumblebee Cichlids and can be very aggressive in certain situations. I'm not saying it's them causing the problem but I would think it might be. Nothing else in the aquarium jumps out at me as being a problem. I would get the Bumblebee's out and see what happens. If that solves the aggression problem and you want to add a couple more fish I'd stick with Peacocks close to the same size as your other fish. The Peacock Cichlids may chase other fish but usually won't kill each other. My main 125 gallon tank has about 40 fish in it and the majority of them are OB Peacocks and I've had good luck with them getting along for the most part. It looks like you already have two OB's in there. If you do add more fish I'd add 2-3 at the same time. You could also add a couple of rocks in the back corners of the tank to give the fish more territory to claim.
 

Kindra775566

New member
Hmmm yea! I have a pet cam trying to figure out who is my bad fish... I’m not sure if it is the yellow for sure :( I have seen him being chased quite often so unsure :/..
I did read online adding more fish will
Help- I was unsure of how many would be to many to consider them being “overstocked” for my 65 gallon. I will add more rocks for them as well... my previous 3 fish who passed were all peacocks- I love them they are beautiful!
 

zamzam

New member
Sorry for your losses. I had that happen to me in one of my tanks as well and it sucked. I am fairly new to keeping African Cichlids but I was also told to overstock the tank to minimize aggression towards any individual fish. I have a 75 gallon tank and most people told me to keep around 20 to 25 cichlids in there ( as long as I can keep up with maintenance). And though I highly doubt this would be the cause of your problem but I think I see two rainbow sharks in there as well. I was told to only keep one of them as there temperament changes when they are not the only one in the tank.

I am by no means an expert on this subject but that is just what I have heard from others. Good luck
 

zamzam

New member
I know. But every tank that I have seen seems to be overstocked with them. From what I've read when there are not enough in the tank then they easily develop territories that they will battle for. But when there are so many of them in the tank then they can not easily maintain a strict territory so they dont fight as much. I would also try moving the decorations around to kind of reset the developed territories.
 

Kindra775566

New member
I know. But every tank that I have seen seems to be overstocked with them. From what I've read when there are not enough in the tank then they easily develop territories that they will battle for. But when there are so many of them in the tank then they can not easily maintain a strict territory so they dont fight as much. I would also try moving the decorations around to kind of reset the developed territories.
I luckily have not lost any more fish. But I am going to look this week for maybe 1-2 more additions to the tank as well as some rocks. Hopefully I will not lose anymore! I was heartbroken to lose my other 3 :(. Especially 1 becuase he was my first fish :’(
 

OB Guy

Administrator
Glad to hear you haven't lost any more fish. If you need to ask any questions about the type of fish you plan on adding feel free to ask. Good luck with the new additions to your Cichlid aquarium and let us know what species of new fish you add and how it works out for you. (y)
 

JABCichlids

New member
With that being an old post and old pic we can not say what is still alive. I, however, see some issues. Mbunas, Peacocks, Haps, and Tropicals all in same tank. All of your fish like structure and you have very little from the pic you posted. There is really only 1 area I see for them all to fight over. So the dominant fish is going to always be protecting his spot.
Red Tailed Shark and Rainbow Shark in a cichlid tank will cause some chaos. Especially that red tailed shark. It also appears that you might have a Hap in that tank. The 3rd fish from left to right he is yellow with what might be brown or black marks. Looks to me like a Nimbochromis venustus commonly called Giraffe Hap. I had one of those and he took over entire tank because they grow so much faster than the others.
Hard to give you more information without some more pics of what is happening now.
 
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