Electric Yellow Cichlids Dying

[leshrimp]

Some times they use it in ways you don't see or realize though. Just because they are not IN a hole doesn't mean they aren't protecting it for future mating purposes. Sometimes the fish use the area around a single rock, a little cliff or over hang as their territory, they need lots of options. Long term successful Mbuna keeping is usually only accomplished by following the guidelines accept by near all rift lake cichlid fans/keepers (which in a nutshell is overcrowd with non similar looking mbunas, 1m:3f min if doing groups of species, lots of rockwork, overfilter, big water changes). This is because they have fairly predictable behavior, aggressive and unrelenting. Although the yellow labs are near the bottom of the aggression levels seen they still have the same survival instincts, find a home, protect it at all costs and mate.

What is your final stocking going to be for this tank?

Thanks for this response. I really want to learn all I can about my fish so your comment was great. Before I got my labs I did do research on them so I knew they where less aggressive but in my opinion I believe that my labs have personalities and one of them is truly an aggressive fish. As for my final stock I currently have 5 labs and a huge common pleco with them but he doesn't bother them too much. The LFS i purchased the labs from said that they couldn't sex them because they where too young.... I don't really buy that though because I can CLEARLY tell which is a male and which is not. Unfortunately with that being said I BELIEVE they gave me 3 males and 3 females.... One of the females passed away unfortunately because my aggressive male ripped off her pectoral fin completely leaving her unable to survive. So that leaves me with 3 males and 2 females which I know is a big problem. So my plan is to go out and buy a few more female labs. If you have any better solution to my predicament I would be glad to hear from you!

 

[DrgRcr]

How do you know you have 3 males? With yellow labs being monomorphic(same color both genders), the only true way to tell sex is by venting them. Egg spots are not an accurate way of determining if that's what you've done. Yellow labs can be aggressive at times like any other mbuna, so don't let that fool you. I've seen some pretty nasty behavior from them. Success with mbuna is good planning and species selection, and a little luck too. I have had several of the 5 groups in my 125 with upside down gender ratios cohabitate for over 4 years now. IMO, with a single species in your tank, they have no where else to focus their attention except on each other. As long as you're positive that it is not disease causing the deaths, I would look into adding 2 more groups of mbuna, along with more rock work.

 

[ktrom13]

African cichlids are usually always agressive which is why people often overstock a bit when get africans... So the agression becomes more spread out and less appearent. As said before, the only true way to sex a yellow lab is by venting them. But i do agree that buying some more would probably be better because itll spread out the agression.

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