fighting cichlids

L

lokisbuddy

keeper of violent fishys
Nov 18, 2005
59
0
0
44
oscoda
i just read a forum about watching cichlids fight and i must say that some good points were raised, but i would like to know if it is wrong to like cichlids because of their aggression? because that is the number 1 reason i got them, the second being their beauty. though i do like their aggression and i will let their natural heirarchy take place i would much rather see them aggressive towards the prey i drop into their tank rather than each other. i would just like some honest oppinions as to whether it is wrong to be attracted to the aggressive nature of this fish?


p.s. i do not support animal cruelty.
 
I know a lot of people get cichlids because of their "aggressive" reputation. A lot of people buy pit bulls for the same reason. One thing to bear in mind is that for the fish this is a survival strategy -- need room to raise a family safely and with enough food. I personally think that a lot the fascination with "aggressive" fish (and dogs) is projection -- if my fish is tough, so am I. I like and keep cichlids, and I see nothing wrong with pit bulls. I just don't think we should be dependent on our fish's toughness for our own self-esteem. If you want to kick some ***, do it yourself, not by proxy.
 
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agressivness can be taken a few ways . i would never let my fish fight over teritiry or otherwize but,,,,, i love how agressive they are with live foods.
 
it is one thing to be intrigued by it, it is a whole other thing to enjoy animals harming eachother. in nature they would simply fight over a territory or mate, which probably does not usually end in death but rather in maybe a couple wounds, then the loser leaves the area. in a tank they still have the same instincts, except they cant leave the territory as they could in nature. in nature their territory may be many feet in diameter, but few tanks are more than a handfull of feet long, therefore making the entire tank one territory. if any aggression takes place in a tank, the individuals involved need to be separated, which means one needs to be moved to another tank. as far as being aggressive towards prey, the only live food that is safe is something you have bred yourself, anything else can very easily introduce parasites and diseases (not that home bred feeders are 100% safe, because they arent).
 
Personally I just love cichlids because of their beauty and how much most of them change from juvinile to adult in appearance. I would like cichilds even more if they were not aggressive towards eachother.
 
getting out of bed in the morning isnt 100% safe. useing a little common sense dont hurt either. if a feeder looks sick it probably is. but you wouldnt want to eat oatmeal every day for breakfast lunch and dinner what makes a fish any diffrent. theres few transferable illnesses that worms and crickets carry. demonizing the term live foods because feeder guppies and feeder goldfish are nasty creatures seems a bit overboard and paranoid to me.

i agree that if 2 fish fight they need to be seaperated though. you wouldnt want to be stuck in a prison cell with someone you just got ina fist fight with. imagine trying to sleep at night. its just creepy
 
a small addition to that is , on average if a cichlids placed correctly in a good sized tank and not overcrowded most arent that agressive. they get bad names because of people who overstock thier tanks.
 
Not so much true some fish ie. Red Devils, Festates, Flowerhorns, Umbees are not the friendliest fish IME they will attack most anything even if there are only 2 fish in the tank. But for the most cichlids it is true.

jadefoodog said:
a small addition to that is , on average if a cichlids placed correctly in a good sized tank and not overcrowded most arent that agressive. they get bad names because of people who overstock thier tanks.
Click to expand...
 
yeah i was being general . its liek saying most tetras are friendly
yeah serpaes are mean as junkyard dogs.
 
fish dont really need the same variety in taste as we do, although variety is always good. and i dont think you would want someone responsbile for your life to look at your food and say, it looks good enough to me, its not showing any signs of disease, give it to him. it is just a lot safer to not feed any live food unless you grew it yourself, even then there is the risk you could pass somethign on to your fish. a disease or pathogen in a feeder fish may not affect that species of fish at all, but could be lethal to the predatory fish it is being fed to, so even if it is fine, it could be carrying something that will kill your fish, so why risk it?
 
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