Whats the best way to introduce new cichlids into an agressive community?

[sg1]

Oscars and sevs are pretty docile, and your jag and RD are pretty established already. Is there any chance you could house those 2 somewhere else? otherwise it is not a terrible stocklist other than the dietary issues with the mbuna

I just have the one aquarium, believe me Id love nothing more to get another, Id kill for a 300G tank setup, just cant get the wife to sign off on it, Im sure there are some out there who can sympathise with that lol

 

[kay-bee]

How big (in inches) are the africans in the tank and what types of fish do you plan on adding? Are you buying them at random or on impulse or are there certain species you are specifically wanting to add?

Despite the presence and quantity of the american cichlids, as far as the african cichilds are concerned (at least for now) only the african cichlids matter. I think from their perspective the 125gal tank only has 6 mbuna's which is understocked (despite the presence of the other non-mbunas which they appear to be disregarding). In your eyes you have a tank with 15 fish. In the mbuna's eyes, the tank has 6 mbunas. Period.

Being "understocked" with mbuna has a way of amplifying aggression (newbies mbuna's are easily identified and targeted). I previously mentioned adding at least 4+ at a time, but you may want to add more than that now that I know what type of tank you have, and ideally add several of the same type to spread the aggression. Preferably you could probably add a few females of each of the mbuna species already in the tank (excluding the acei).

The problem is you'd have to at least TRIPLE your current mbuna population, but that would be too many fish since there are other cichlids in there besides the mbuna's (which is way establishing a separate tank for your mbuna's is highly recommended).

More 'problems' may/will occur in time as the cichlids (americans and africans) attain sexual maturity (which is when aggression potential PEAKS).

 

[sg1]

How big (in inches) are the africans in the tank and what types of fish do you plan on adding? Are you buying them at random or on impulse or are there certain species you are specifically wanting to add?

Despite the presence and quantity of the american cichlids, as far as the african cichilds are concerned (at least for now) only the african cichlids matter. I think from their perspective the 125gal tank only has 6 mbuna's which is understocked (despite the presence of the other non-mbunas which they appear to be disregarding). In your eyes you have a tank with 15 fish. In the mbuna's eyes, the tank has 6 mbunas. Period.

Being "understocked" with mbuna has a way of amplifying aggression (newbies mbuna's are easily identified and targeted). I previously mentioned adding at least 4+ at a time, but you may want to add more than that now that I know what type of tank you have, and ideally add several of the same type to spread the aggression. Preferably you could probably add a few females of each of the mbuna species already in the tank (excluding the acei).

The problem is you'd have to at least TRIPLE your current mbuna population, but that would be too many fish since there are other cichlids in there besides the mbuna's (which is way establishing a separate tank for your mbuna's is highly recommended).

More 'problems' may/will occur in time as the cichlids (americans and africans) attain sexual maturity (which is when aggression potential PEAKS).

I definantly plan on more mbuna, so we'll see how it goes, Ill try some of the tips for introducing them that ive gotten here and at MFK.

 

[Preeths]

I always add the new fish after feeding the existing ones. Aggression is relatively lesser during this time. I also add a few orange Ping-Pong balls when i see a lot of aggression. The fish go after the Ping-Pong balls instead of each other.