Ok...I need some help from some experienced people!

I'm having some troubles in my 6 foot community malawi tank. All was peaceful till I did some changing which has resulted in some severely battered and dead fish. Between sales and losses from beatings, this is what I ended up...things have changed. The problem...my male cobalts...I should've left them alone with 6...I sold off two, ended up with 4. Then they weren't allowing the borleyi & phenochilus to spawn. SO I remove 1 more...then the three lay a beating on their females. So I was forced to remove last two extra males...now the only one has taken over the entire tank and gone on a rampage beating the yellow labs senseless! Should I put him in fishy prison for a while?

3 months ago......................LEFT WITH NOW

Cobalts 6M/4F............................1M/2F, 2 small juvies
Bicolor 1M/2F.............................1M/1F
Borleyi 1M/2F ............................none
Phenochilus 2M/2F .....................1M/1F
Yellow Labs 7 ............................4 adults, 5 juvies
Cynotylapia Mbamba (1M/2F)......none
Pseudo Longior..........................4 subadults


Now my tank is sooooooo understocked! I'm having struggles and that damned cobalt male has gone hogwild...what do I do? Do I totally rearrange the rock from scratch?

This is what I have in other tanks....
10 juvie demasoni
3F/1M estherae
2M/2F placidochromis electra
1M/3F Mloto Likoma

Can I remove the cobalts and put in with my 4-6" Cyphos Bismarcks? The estherae, electra & likomas are currently living with the bismarcks. Do I add demasoni & let them work things out? Will demasoni work in a tank like this?

HELP...need some opinions. Also...would electra & phenochilus crossbreed? I'm inclined to believe yes, but curious if anybody keeps both. Thanks, Steph

Steph, I have little experience with most of these species, so this is mostly one of those posts that just says "Ack, I hear you and that's such a rotten feeling when changes chain react in negative ways." dumb dumb

My male Estherae is usually a troublemaker rather than a good tank-mate, though he's in with the same juvies with whom he's been growing for 7 months now and (I believe only due to familiarity) he keeps from acting out too much.

Like yours, my Yellow Labs only hassle each other, and then not energetically.

I'm looking forward to learning from the posts when our Cichlid Haven veterans respond on this thread. Hmmmm

Hang in there!

Thanks. I've been wondering what to do here for a while...so I'm totally baffled as to what direction to go!

Well nobody commented whatsoever....mope mope mope!

I added the demasoni last night and put Mr. Cobalt into fishy prison (breeders net in the main tank to watch everybody and learn what a bad boy he is)...because he beat up another cobalt to almost death...he still may die! :blink: He has slowly pegged off his entire colony...I never see him do it, but I think it's him!

CowGirl, it sounds like its time to either cut your loses with that species and get rid of them or move them to a tank by themselves. Maybe a tank where you can put a divider in until you can calm that little Charles Manson want-a-be down a bit. I am not an mbuna expert by any streatch of the imagination. But it sounds like you have a very aggressive dude on your hands.

Still keep an eye on him Cowchick!

I once isolated a bully in a breeder net and he chewed his way right out of it. I thought he had jumped out, but then I saw an mbuna sized hole right in the side. yikes

A couple of sugestions
I'd put the bugger in a 10g for a week to chill him out or unload the lot to a lfs for credit.
What temp do you keep the tank at? Sometimes lowering the temp a couple of degrees can help reduce the aggression. If you put him in solitary for a bit rearrange the rocks to break up his territory.

I'd think that aggressive mbuna wouldn't be a good match with haps. If it were up to me to rearrange things. I'd put the yellow labs with the haps and peacocks in one tank and put the mbuna in another. yellow labs and aceii are the only "mbuna" I have successfully tried or wanted to try in combination with haps.

Good luck with whatever you decide.

Thanks guys...the funny thing is those phenochilus are no match for that bugger. And the peacock is actually a jerk and almost killed my phenochilus back 5 months ago in a smaller tank, so I thought I had a nice match. Actually the tank was perfect till I sold the mbambas and the extra cobalts...but I can't tell the cobalts apart...they all look the freaking same when they're mature males!

I'll try the solitude thing, and ya, I've been thinking of cutting my losses...too bad, cause I was just starting to get them breeding regularly and people are crying for them around here...GrrrrR

Hey, Steph !!!

I'm going through something very similar. I, too, have been thinning my stock. and in doing so, I have awoken a few beasts. I've tried isolation on the aggressors, but to no avail. so, now, I've combined a few tanks and went back to "super" overstocking this tank. all seems to be better now.

I really feel that if you go from an overstocked tank to an understocked( or moderately) stocked tank, you may have some fights on your hands.

I hope you find some harmony, soon !!! Cloud 9

I didn't see this thread!

I agree with Dave regarding keeping the haps with the more aggressive mbuna. Stress can do some really strange things to your tank, and it sounds like you've lost a lot of fish. It may not all be to direct aggression, it could be from stress.

Those male Cobalts can be impossible. We had 3 out of this last group we raised, and had I left them all together, I would have had an entire tank wiped out. Are these the ones you got from us? If so, I'm really surprised it lasted this long with all those boys in the same tank.

Do you have any decent sized juvies growing out??? If so, add them back to the main tank and this might be all you need to do. Just the confusion of the extra fish (that don't represent a threat to the larger fish) can be all it takes to straighten out a tank and buy you some time until you decide what you want to do.

Kim

UGH I hate these decisions!

My big demon is in a breeders net chilling out, with one of his beaus in recovery and the other in recovery in the main tank! I may put him in with the fronts and see what he does...bastard child needs to hit the bottom of the barrel to chill out!

My take on this:

I would add ur Esthrae from the other tank and put it into the tank with the bully, I had the same problem with a cobalt and this calmed things down a great deal.

you could also do what others above stated like remove the bad ass and put him in a holding cell. In the mean time re=arrange the tank's rock change stuff around and then after a few days introduce him to the tank see how that works.

Im gonna asume you use "Aquarium safe" salt in ur cichlid tanks?? as well as you check your water parameters? because aggression could be triggered by a number of factors some as simple as a slight temp change...to more complexites as water chemistry/ diet but cleary thats not prevelant because you said it ur self you've only been exp these issues once u decided to change things up.

Why did you decide to change it up again?? 2 lazy to re=read the above posts lol
Blush If it wasnt a problem before I would get those males back and things will be okay again

Rob

The callainos and estherae would cross breed if she did that! She has people wanting fry from her Cobalts, and you could not trust fry to be pure if the estherae and Cobalts were mixed, especially so with a Cobalt male as dominant as this one is!

Kim

Whoops didnt know she was sellin the colbalts....I guess I read teh above posts to dame fast again....yeah so please disregard my post

See when I had that problem I wasnt selling my cichlids so everything worked out juss fine for me.... :blink:

Hmmmm BINGO
How's this one. I think you need a species tank for those cobalts. What's one more fish tank? Drooly I'm sure Pete and Kim have one of their magic glass cages they don't want to move! You'll be up to your proverbial armpits in cobalt fry in no time!

I think I figured out my problem...he breeds the girls and gets too damned horny to stop so he chases them till they're half dead. I saved the last two girls and they both spit out eggs in holding...he's still in a holding cell though!


I added all my juvie demasoni & a few younger cobalts and yellow labs...hopefully this works, or I'm gonna fishy slap him!

Good call

juss don't slapp em to hard other wise he'll have to be ur next meal,, On the Floor Laughing

I know what you're saying...

Elvis and Priscilla caused me to be totally blindsided by their babies...They were so mild mannered (well, right up until Elvis killed Priscilla blinky )

Their children were juvenile delinquents from the word go, though!

Kim