[barbarian206]

hello im new to the african cichlids but after 4months im starting to have a problem im trying to find out if this is natural or not i have a 55 gal. tank with a mix of rift lake cichlids they were all getting along until a few days ago they all started to attack the bumble bee the variety of fish are as follows...bumble bee,m.aruatus,yellow lab,albino pindani ,kenyi red zebra,yellow tail acei,cobalt zebra. is it natural for them to do this i have separated the bumble bee so he can regenerate but im weary of putting him back in .. need help ty all.

 

[QHgal]

How many of each fish do you have?

Auratus, Bumble bee (crabro) and Kenyi all should be in at least a 75 gal tank, but not with each other. These three species get large and quite nasty.

 

[barbarian206]

i have 1 of each, how large do they get the auratus and kenyi are males the crabo is a female im new to the cichlids and love evry thing about them i do alot of research but can not come up with alot of ansewers ty for the help

 

[QHgal]

Auratus - http://www.cichlid-forum.com/profiles/species.php?id=750
Its not that auratus gets big, they are about 5 inches. They are extremely aggressive.

Crabro (bumblebee) - http://www.cichlid-forum.com/profiles/s ... php?id=845
gets about 8 inches. To large and aggressive for a 55.

Kenyi - http://www.cichlid-forum.com/profiles/species.php?id=798
Another highly aggressive species.

the auratus and kenyi are males the crabo is a female

That just might be your problem. If your going for all male, then you need to stick with all males. One female will throw your whole tank out of wack. However, if you ARE trying for all male, you need to rethink the stock.
If you want a variety of groups then I would pick 3 of these - yellow lab,albino pindani (socolofi), red zebra, yellow tail acei, cobalt zebra and beef up the numbers. If your looking for a more peaceful tank, you could do labs, acei and socolofi. Zebras are pretty aggressive and if you plan on saving any fry from this tank, then you shouldn't mix zebras and labs.

Do you just have one of each fish? If thats what you want, then I would go all male. You can do that in a 55 as long as your careful with your species. Do some searchs on all male tanks, there are lots of posts on all male tanks.

 

[barbarian206]

i understand what your talking about the aggression part bought the stock when they where real young i got all 8 at once everything was fine for 4 months until now the yellow tail acei is also a female and the albino (socolofi) i cant tell and the rest im pretty sure are all males when i went to my pet shop he said maybe she sick thats why they all atttacked her could this be true . also i just put a male craybo in the tank and they do not bother him but he also attacks the female is that normal.

 

[QHgal]

bought the stock when they where real young i got all 8 at once everything was fine for 4 months

You have not had any problems because the fish were juveniles. Now that they are maturing, you will see more problems and death until you fix the stock of your tank.

he said maybe she sick thats why they all atttacked her could this be true

Doubt it, Its a stocking problem. The stress of being in a too small tank with highly aggressive species could cause her to become sick, but they other fish wouldn't start attacking because she was sick in the first place.

also i just put a male craybo in the tank and they do not bother him but he also attacks the female is that normal

Yes, Mbuna are NOT a pairing fish.
Why did you add a male crabro to the tank??

If you want to keep all of the highly aggressive species you have, then I recommend you upgrade to at least a 100 gal tank. They will not survive in the 55 long-term.

 

[Dewdrop]

They WILL pick on a sick fish and try to take it out. I bought 3 little yellow tailed acei from a LFS. When they got to be close to 2" I went back to get a couple more. They had a new shipment of them in and I have to admit I didn't put my reading glasses on and check them out to good but bought 3 more little ones. As soon as I put them in my tank the acei that I had started picking on them. At first I thought they were just trying to get them to join their group. The next morning one was dead so I started watching closer. The other 2 didn't look very good & I could tell for sure they were being picked on by the bigger acei. One had badly nipped fins and tail and they were real skinny. Across the bottom of their tummy looking at them sideways, it kinda curved up in the middle, wasn't straight across. I don't know if they were diseased or just starving to death but sure weren't healthy. I started getting a small tank I had ready for a hospital tank but by the time it was ready (around noon) another one was dead so I removed the last one to the small tank by itself where it died that night. At the same time I bought those last 3 I bought 2 other tiny fish of a different species. One was under an inch long. These fish looked very healthy and are still doing fine. I'm convience that there was something wrong with those 3 acei and the others knew and tried to kill them.

Sorry so long. Was just trying to show that they will pick on a sick fish. You were getting good advice though. Those fish are to aggressive for a 55g. tank.

 

[barbarian206]

ty for the advice and it is true about them trying to kill a sick fish . but i took her out of the tank and put her in a breeder tank for a week while she was in the breeder i noticed the kenyi started a ruckus with the female acei and evryone joined in so i bought another bumble bee a male this time much smaller than the rest and they did not try anything but the male bee was trying to attack the female bee the breeder was in the tank she was going back at him and the kenyi so i separated the kenyi in another breeder and put the female back everything is fine the tank seems very peaceful. so i took the kenyi back to the lfs he put it in with his personal tank and evrything is fine so i thank you all for your knowledge that i did not have it is very useful thank you all