Fighting for dominance?

J

jmattingly

AC Members
Jan 22, 2006
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Aurora, CO
I have two cichlids that suddenly seem to be at each other's throats. One has some visible marks along his side, where he has been hit.

The behavior I've been noticing now, is two males locking their mouths together, almost like you'd see rams locking horns. They start trying to push each other around the tank, after they get a grip on each other.

Is this going to be a fight to the death? I'd rather not lose either of them. I'm guessing this is a dominance issue.

Any thoughts?

I'll try to get a picture to include. But every time I get near the tank, they seem to break up their fight.

Joe
 
actually by identifying the species(type) it can help to identify what might happen.

some cichlids spar off to set dominance.
sometimes, if you mix cichlids, all out war can break out.
some cichlids are just aggressive and fight.

do you have the tank set up with lots of cover/caves? I think haps like rocky territory..they will need places to retreat to.
 
I have several areas of rocks & caves. I'm planning on adding more. It's a 125 gallon tank. So there is plenty of room to spread out.

I currently have 6 of the Blue Haps. I also have 2 pink Gouramis, and a large pleco (yes, I know... and I'm trying to move them out). The tank isn't crowded by any means though.

For the most part, the Blues tend to school around. A few have found their homes in the rocks. I have only had them for a few days now, and hadn't previously noticed any aggression at all. I'm actually surprised that they are being aggressive with each other, and not with the Gouramis (which happen to be larger than the Haps right now).

I'm really going to have to work to get a photo of what they are doing. I think it has to be a dominance thing. I just want to make sure they aren't going to kill each other off.

Joe
 
Well I would aim for no more than 2 males and the rest females. Even in a large tank, the two males might very well still fight. With 4 males, you are doubling your trouble, as they are probebly not only competing for territory but also for females.

Makes sure to have tons of rocks, even though 'electric blues' are haps and prefer open water, having lots of rocks will help with aggression.


OOo and I just checked out the thread you linked to. By the angle of the picture they dont look quite right, but it just could be the picture. Any chance of getting more pics?

-Diana
 
Here's a photo I took this evening. What do you mean by "they don't look quite right"?

I was told these are hybrid electric blues. I hope that's correct.

Joe

electric-blues-2.jpg
 
Oh so you know they are hybrid?

Thats what I meant when I said they didn't quite look right. The face doesn't look like the normal S. fryeri face.

Part of the problem with hybrids is you never know what personality your getting with the fish... these guys could have been crossed with a very aggressive malawi, thus you may be in for some problems aggression-wise that you would normally not anticipate with fryeri.

-Diana
 
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