Confused, need suggestion

**Ed Bromo** · 07-24-2004, 05:54 AM

I used to raise many diff Mabuna maney years ago. A friend gave me an Aqurioum a feek weeks back and I settled the tank by starting with a large pleco, small pleco, and a twig fish. After all seemed well I added two Albino, one Blue, and two Orange Mabuna. All was happy for about four weeks... then

The two Orange fish killed every other fish in the tank in a 24 hour period - now for two weeks one stays in a cavern and the other stays in the plants, niether one show stress or damage but it is rather dull, lol. One of the two has the egg spots(all the others had egg spots when they were alive)
Is it possible I have an Orange pair or do i need to intro more with egg spots? I am clueless, been away from the hobby too long and the books i had are lost...
Any suggestions sincerely appreciated

**aharris** · 07-24-2004, 06:58 AM

What size tank do you have? What are your water parameters? I'm going to guess that your orange fish are Red Zebras (one of the more aggressive mbuna species). They may have worked out their territories with neither fish willing or able to dominate the other. There may also be water quality issues dampening their natural aggressive behavior. However, the Cihligeddon you describe is common in situations in which the fish have not been given enough space to begin with.

**Ed Bromo** · 07-25-2004, 07:31 AM

Well all makes good sense, the tank is a standard 29 and i suppose as they gew the first few weeks they just ran out of space. I am adding some more caverns, there are two now and I will add two today as it seems the one without the spots is attacking the other now - argh! a tank with one fish was not my goal(and it was expensive)! I suppose I should let nature take it's course and perhaps start all over... You were a great help and I thank you... any suggestions appreciated. By the way all I know about the water is it is very alkaline.

**DevilDude** · 07-26-2004, 01:34 PM

well for starters your tank is kinda small, while it's possible to keep mbuna in a 29, they will become territorial and that causes problems as a 29 doesn't have enough space for them to establish territories. your second problem is caves, you need more, alot more as refference heres a pic of my tank.

**P-Did** · 07-26-2004, 01:51 PM

How big and how many fish you got in the tank you posted?

**Matt V** · 07-26-2004, 03:09 PM

If they are red zebras, you might want to see if you can get a Melanochromis johanni. I have a tank that has two zebras and 3 johanni in it (and temporarily my 4 white labs) and the johanni and the zebras completely and utterly ignore eachother. It might just be my tank or those fish, but FWIW, I had luck with that combo... They've been there for over two years w/out casualty and barely any agression to speak of.

Again, not really a suggestion, just sharing what's worked for me.

**aharris** · 07-26-2004, 04:31 PM

Yeah, it sounded to me like you had them in a small tank. It's going to take some careful balancing to avoid a one fish tank. All of the suggestions above are good; definitely add lots of hidey holes for them. Also, keep an eye on their behavior. If one is clearly a monster in behavior, you might consider removing him and trading him back into the fish store for another who might be less trouble.

**Tobeannounced** · 07-26-2004, 04:53 PM

Or if you have a trouble maker you can put him on time out in a hospital box, for a bad fish this is effective because they get to see the others play and he can't

The fish are like kids, take away what they love and you will actualy punish them

**P-Did** · 07-26-2004, 09:16 PM

LOL! You really think they learn from their "time outs"? Do you think they are self-reflecting in there?! That concept just cracks me up!

**jonah** · 07-26-2004, 09:38 PM

Originally posted by Tobeannounced
Or if you have a trouble maker you can put him on time out in a hospital box, for a bad fish this is effective because they get to see the others play and he can't

The fish are like kids, take away what they love and you will actualy punish them

I've used a variation of that. I stick them in a hospital tank for a week, then rearrange the main tank before returning the aggro fish. Much better than letting them beat the snot out of each other.

**Seedy** · 07-26-2004, 09:42 PM

I agree with Jonah and TBA this is a fairly well accepted method of breaking a dominant males "dominance". Here's a leluepi in the box cus it was getting picked on (he's much better now)

and here is my old "hap in the box" pic

...Time out was very effective for this fish, but I ended up trading him back to the lfs to go strictly with Mbuna in my 40 breeder....

**Matt V** · 07-26-2004, 10:05 PM

It's like Hockey for cichlids!

It works some of the time. I've had it work, but I've also had it just piss the dominant fish off and then he's (cause it's always a male) just get angrier.

But, it can't hurt to try!