Aggression suggestion welcome...

[ozgood]

I have a 75 gallon with 5 (3m/2f) Kenyi, 5 Acei, 4 Electric Yellow, 1 BN Pleco. All Chichlid added to the tank at the same time, about 4 months ago.

Photo here: http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=133892

I have two very yellow make Kenyi and one semi-yellow. The main dominate male has always laid claim to the left side of the tank. Runs everyone off that goes to "his" side.

Now he's dive bombing the fish in the other side of the tank. Wife wants me to scoop him out and take him back. A) this isn't going to be easy without tearing up the tank and B) someone will just step in and take his place.

Anyone have any suggestions on how to stop the dive bombing? So far there hasn't been any nipping or anything. I figure that'll happen soon enough once everyone matures.

I could seriously rearrange the rocks. Like, dig up the substrate and really move them around. I could scoop the male Kenyi out of the tank. I could add more fish but would rather not as I don't want any more bio-load.

I'd like to do something. I welcome all suggestions.

[irishspy]

I'm no expert on mbunas, but I think your best first attempt is to rearrange the rockwork, in the hope they'll create new territories.

[kay-bee]

Kenyi's are one of the more aggressive mbuna species, and to add to that, some male kenyi won't tolerate the presence of other male kenyi's in the tank. You may want to seriously consider relocating/selling/trading off two of the other males or at least add more female kenyi in the tank.

However it seems that situation hasn't occurred yet and the matter currently at hand is hyperdominance. Removing the most dominant kenyi will create a 'power vacuum' which will be filled by the next dominant fish (probably one of the other male kenyi's).

Rearranging the tank will probably result in a temporary pause in the harassment since the kenyi's are predisposed to being aggressive and territorial (meaning, after rearrangement, their first goal will be to claim new territories (using aggression to achieve this), especially since the species in with them (yellow labs & acei) aren't in the same competitive league as the kenyi are).

To balance out the aggression you could:

a. Remove all kenyi. You have multiple male's belonging to one of the most aggressive mbuna species in with a tank with several of the more peaceful species. Replace that species with a less aggressive species).

b. Remove the yellow labs and acei and add more aggressive mbuna's to even out the playing field (zebras, auratus, ps. elongatus, etc to assume roles as challengers, rivals, tough targets, etc). The thing is, do you really want an aggressive set up?

c. Add more female kenyi to preoccupy the dominant male kenyi, like 5-8 more to establish a 1m/2-3f gender ratio. However do you want to have a kenyi-dominated tank?

Not easy choices, but one will have to be made because judging by your pics in the other thread, your fish are still small, and they're aggression can intensify when they're in the 5 or 6 inch size range.

[ozgood]

Thanks for the info gang. I'll do some soul searching. I'm leaning towards removing the Kenyi. I just don't look forward to trying to fish them out of the tank. I'll see about replacing them with some more mellow mbuna. Maybe just get some more yellow labs and acei.

Do you all have any suggestions for better tankmates for the yellow labs and acei?

[cav]

I had a single male kenyi that started to totally dominate the whole of my 50gallon tank, even with lots of rock work, this is the second one I had after removing the first one and taking back to my lfs, I bought this one as a juvie thinking he was another species(even thought the wife warned me he looked exactly the same as the first one I had bought, I hate it when she is right). I didn't realise at the time just how aggressive these fish get as they mature. Needless to say he was taken back to the lfs and I will be very careful not to purchase another in future. My tank is quite aggressive with various melanochromis, zebra, elongatus, crabro to name a few but the kenyi even beat on them!

[ozgood]

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm going to do what I should have done in the beginning, I'm going to remove the Kenyi. It won't be a happy Christmas for them, haha.

Would leaving the females in there alone be an issue? My wife really likes them and would like to keep them.

I'm either going to find some Rusty Cichlids or get a few more of the yellow labs and acei.

[vanpudin]

I have 2 rustys, 3 yellow labs, 1 acei,1 kenyi/or kenyi hybred, along with about 4 others in my 55g. My kenyi was more aggressive and a suspect in fish deaths awhile back, but is now less agressive since i added more fish. The rustys will develop a nice purple tint after awhile, making them more enjoyable to look at. My labs are very lively and compete with each other sometimes. You might get away with having 1 kenyi if their is enough fish and hiding places to help lower aggression, expecially if a female.

[ozgood]

Just to close the loop on this thread, I removed the three male Kenyi and left the two Kenyi. In the process I had to teardown most of my rockwork. I'm very happy with the result. I returned the fish to the store and now have a MUCH happier tank. My yellow labs are now swimming around the tank, the acei swim from side to side in the tank. The female Kenyi will occasionally chase off another fish but mostly stick to themselves. Finally, my bushynose pleco comes out more in the light.

Thanks for everyone's help.