[BioG]

Ok, As my HUGE tank project is still in the works :roll: I gave up on jumbos because they were slimming and dying one by one in their 4 foot 80 and 9 gallon enclosures. All the while however My dwarf cyp (Blue Flash and Utinta) Colonies were doing fine for years in identical setups.

Now, however I've noticed 3 of my 12 female Blue Flash slimming (None of the Utintas slimming yet :thumb: ) and I can't tell why.

Water parameters are tested weekly (I like playing with my tanks ok! :lol: ) and are fine. Heat is good, no new changes and , as a matter of fact, this tank, an 80 gallon bowfront 4' long, just got off a 2 week run of Metrodiazanole and Praziquantel (Delivered in their food).

I treat a course of antibiotics every time I add new fish which have already been quarantined or, inthis case, just adding young females from growout... Anyway

Over the last 3 months a new dominant male (Oh, my ratio is 3 males to 12 females) has emerged, a yellow tailed, very pretty, VERY aggressive male. He is a true blue flash but I have never seen a tyrant like this, My jumbos weren't even close to this aggressive.

He only allows one other male to color up, even with 12 females! And he violently pursues females so that now all of them are restricted to the left third of the tank!

I never see it but the other colored up male, a blue tail, has lips which seem frayed or whitened from fighting slightly. I have never seen a lip-locking cyp fight!?

Anyway was just curious as to wether anyone has dealt with an evil male dwarf cyp before? I hate to move him because I'd have to break the tank down AGAIN, but i'll have to if I, through observation and the forum advice, determine that he is harassing the females to death.

He tries spawning and shakes aggressively etc. but is too overzealous in his pursuit from what I can see and even egg ready females will swim away before they get in the mood as it were. Consequently, I have had no carrying females from that group for almost 3 months.

TIA

 

[@nt!x]

I used to have only 3 males in my tank and was having problems loosing the females. Now I have 9 males in with 19 females. I noticed that if you leave more males in there they will fight with each other instead of picking on the females. When I added the extra males the females quit dieing.

 

[BioG]

That's a good idea plus if I have to take the tank apart to get the problem male out I'll just cut the male numbers down while doing that.

The only reason I cut the number of males down was because of the electrifying colors I'm seeing out of the two dominants. Do you still get peak color with a bunch of males (I'm no cyp expert if you've read any of my cyp threads )?

How big is your group? Any other details on your cyp husbandry would be helpful. + if you ever want to swap fry to mix up the gene pool a bit let me know since we're both in Utah.

 

[BioG]

what about adding juvies to an adult group? My juvies are still unsexable at 1-1.5". When do you add yours? I have been waiting until they're sexable.

I feed a mix of NLS and Dainichi ("baby" pellets, which oddly are way too big to feed cichlid "babies" of any species.) Anyway thanks again.

 

[Chekboy2]

I have been in almost this exact situation, it was with venustus mind you but the same scenario. I found that adding another female did the trick. I don't know if it was the fact that he could not control that many females or if just the introduction of another fish changed the order of things. Either way it was a pleasant colony after the addition.

 

[@nt!x]

I have 28 cyps (9m 19f) and most of my males have excellent color. When I was loosing the females I added juvies. A bunch of them colored up and I left them in there. Haven't lost a female since then.

 

[BioG]

Well I did add 3 more males (Mine are in a 4 footer) and The tyrant male just pushed them into the corner too so I took him out and one of the other Blue tails colored up fairly quickly but little or no color on the other males.

Perhaps, Utinta are more docile than Blue flash? I'll have to start paying attention to that. It seems as though a 4 foot 80 gallon setup will only allow for two males to color up?

I'll, most likely lose 1 more female who was VERY slim when I removed the angry male but now, only 5 days later I have two other females holding and everyone has the run of the tank! It's much nicer to watch them use the tank rather than seeing them balled up in one corner.

The slimming females are feeding heavily now so they should bounce back soon. I'm dosing them with Metro and Praziquantel anyway for good measure.