One fish is hurting another... What do I do?

H

HouseCookie

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Jan 26, 2005
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I have a 29 gallon tank, half gravel, half sand. It has one 6 inch flower pot, a plant (fake), and a driftwood thing I got at a pet store. There are 3 fish in the tank, all cichlids:

1 Acei
1 Red Devil
1 Electric Yellow

I've had the tank up and going for a few months now, and haven't had any troubles, until last night I noticed the Electric yellows rear fin was kinda closed. Today I looked and I find out it's not closed, but instead half eaten, by the Red Devil I believe. I took a bag, filled it with some water, and put the yellow one it it. its floating in the tank right now like it would be when trying to adjust a fish to the tempurature of the water. The only problem I see with this idea right now, is that it is small, and there isn't any filtration/air/ect. I thought about getting out an old gerbil ball and putting him in there, and putting that in the tank...

Anyway, what should I do with Yellow fish? Setting up another tank for it really isn't an option right now. Would it be better to isolate the fish that is doing the damage? Besides getting a bigger tank, when the fish is healed, is there anything I can do to prevent it from happening? Will the obvious more hidding spots help?

Thanks
HC
 
If you can't afford another aquarium then take the Red Devil to the store and see if they can take it.

Also, a Red Devil will outgrow a 29 gallon tank.

Also, this driftwood that you added, is it real or fake?

If it's real then it's NOT good for Africans as it will lower the ph, and africans prefer a higher ph.

If it's fake then fine.
 
I think its real, but its been there since I put the fish in there, and I'm pretty sure the ph hasn't dropped any, if it has, its still up near 8ish...

Any one else have any other ideas? I really don't want to get rid of my fish :(
 
If it's not an option to buy a bigger tank, and seperate them and your lfs will not take him back, then the only thing you can do would be to add hiding spot's & cave's. Cichlid's love these, and it would give him somewhere to retreat to, if he was being bothered. You said he was small. Is he smaller than the one bothering him? If so spot's where the smaller fish can get into the bigger might not, but, i think this would only be a short term solution, and fish have the habit of getting into place's you would not think they would fit in!! I'm still trying to figure out how one of my Pictus got into the tiniest of cave's :rolleyes:

You said everything was fine until recently, which may intale a change. Or growing aggression especially from male's!

Have you changed your set up recently..decoration..gravel.....ect ?
Have you checked your water?
 
red devils dont mix with africans. they have different requirements arand your africans need a larger tank as well. africans need to be either overstocked (in at least a fifty five with maybe 8-10 cichlids, or larger tank for more fish) or in a tank large enough so that each fish has plenty of territory, a 29 will not work for the fish you have.
 
Erm... when I said red devil, I ment red zebra... but yeah, I changed the water right before they started acting this way. Does this change anything?
 
oh yeah, you are having aggression in your tank due to the nature of your fish. You have mbuna which need a larger space to stake out 'territories", and unlike SA or CA (s. amer. and central american) cichlids which claim one area for a territory, africans stake the whole tank and any area is game to be fought over. If you MUST keep cichlids in your 29, return the red zebra and acei. get your yellow (sounds like a yellow lab) two more buddies and then see if one is a female. keep the mating pair and return the odd one out and soon you will see lots of spawning behaviour and young fry. I would be wary keeping mawlaians in anything under 55gallon, the aggression gets just too intense. check out the cichlid forums for more info, i suggest also searching for the terms cichlid 29 gallon in the search bar and seeing what pops up.
but the aggression you are seeing now will only worsen as the mbuna mature- what are the sizes, btw? how long have you had them? hth and good luck!
 
I think that you should take back the acei and red zebra as soon as you can. Keep the yellow lab in there to keep it cycled and to let it recooperate then change your setup to a community tank or if you really like african cichlids maybe try some shell dwelling species. After you add 1 or two new fish take back the yellow lab also because a 29 gallon is to small for it and it will not be as happy by itself as it would with its own kind. If you still feel the need for some african mbuna cichlids, then get a bigger tank and do some research. I waited 3 months before getting my 80 gallon for mbuna's and still I am debating which fish to put in it.

best of luck to you
spencer
 
Well, you could overstock for aggression purposes, which I have seen happen to many a cichlid tank.
 
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