Demon Demasoni

S

shibumi2k

AC Members
Jan 8, 2006
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Hi Folks,

Our lil Demasoni (aptly named "Damian") is terrorizing the tank. It's gotten to the point where all of the others pretty much hide all of the time except for feedings. The Demasoni controls the whole front of the tank - and goes after anyone else who wanders out to the front.

We've tried rearranging and changing all of the ornaments, but he still grabs the entire front.

The LFS has said we can bring him back, and we're considering it, but oddly enough, we've also grown attached to the lil [censored]! lol He is quite a beauty!

I'm considering putting him in his own little tank and wanted to know how small of a tank we could go for one Demasoni - 5 gal? 10 gal? And - would he be ok in a tank all by himself?? He certainly doesn't seem to like having anyone else around him!

If a 5 or 10 won't work, it may be back to the store with him...

Thanks for any suggestions.

For info purposes, the current tank is 36 gallons - a corner tank w/ a bowed glass front (in case that matters) and has:

1 Demasoni
1 electric yellow
1 electric blue
1 albino (socolofi) - this guy has taken the MOST abuse - his tail and bottom fins are getting all torn up...
1 venustus

and 4 Danios

The Tank
 
Yeah, they're known for their high aggression. I'd advise getting him out of that tank or you may risk losing your other fish. IMO, they really should be kept in species only tanks and sadly a 5 or 10g just isn't big enough for him. You may consider just upgrading your current tank to something larger and adding more rocks/caves to create more territories and hiding places for all the fish.
 
Your tank will ultimately be too small for the particular african cichlids you have (especially for the venustus which will get up to 10" and grow faster than most of your other fish).

If you had a larger tank I'd recommend getting more demasoni (10+), or several dominant types (like zebras). Your tank has too few occupants (which promotes the creation of 'bullies' in my opinion) and no plausible rivals to keep the demasoni in check.

Despite the aggressiveness, mbuna are social and thrive in well-sized groups; I'd recommend returning the demasoni (as well as most of your other cichlids, you might be able to get by with a group of yellow labs in that tank).
 
I agree with the previous comments. Your tank will end up being much too small for any of the fish you have, especially since its a corner bowfront, which doesn't provide much territory space IMO.

The demasoni's aggression is usually kept to thier own species, but in a smaller tank like that I can see why he's starting to terrorize everyone else.

I would work on upgrading your tank size ASAP if you want to keep your fish. If you cant, I suggest returning them and going with some smaller cichlid species from Lake Tangynika that would be more suitable to that tank size.

If you upgrade, I'd still remove the venustus (would probebly end up being able to eat the demasoni), and get a few more of each of the species. I still am nervous about keeping a colony of demasoni, since you are likely to loose possibly up to half of thier colony due to aggression until they 'work things out'.

;)
-Diana
 
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