froggiegal

Can someone tell me why a cichlid will rub his body over rocks and turns on his side to do it?

He's in the cynatalapia (sp) afra family...

He's been good for a week. We're noticing that he is now being agressive especially to an albino socolofi. The other cichlids in the tank are a blue socolofi and two jewels.

Thanks.

Slug

Possibly the start of ICH. Possibly just scratching. What are your water readings at? Temp?

I'd do a water change just to be safe.

Allie

Malawi cichlids do this as a territorial thing. It's like their way of cursing and swearing.
Malawi cichlids do best in groups of 4 of each species at least, in species only tank. 1 male to 3 females...other wise single males will get very aggressive and ruin the peace of the tank. http://cichlidforum.com/articles/mixed_africans.php


Slug didn't you keep Malawi africans? You never noticed them doing the territorial "scootch" as I call it?

Slug

I never noticed it as a territorial action, at least i never took it that way. I guess it was so subtle it didn't really stand out that way to me. This is actually the first time i've ever heard it described as this lol.

Allie

When mine do it, it's far from subtle. lol
I guess I watch my fish too much. I always notice especially now that I have the cobue afra again. They get mad at one of the other fish come flying out "scootching" fast along rocks and gravel. It look pretty silly. My blue hap female use to do it at the male blue hap when he was trying to get busy and getting on her nerves. Too funny.
If I can get a video of it one day I will.

Angela_96

My female kenyi does it right before spawning, and the other cichlids do it and its just like they are giving each other the finger... if it keeps up between a couple of them they start that swimming around each other and the end result is a mouth fight.

The female kenyi does it I think to show her aggression to run the other cichlids off, just as the male in my tank (they both get really rough around spawning time.

One thing is for sure when they start that behavior, they are ticked off!

Allie

Good yours do it it too, so you know what I mean.

Angela_96

lol yep! I have a large sized yellow lab and kenyi male that got into a shoaling match the other day... I literally decided it was tank cleaning time when they were beating themeselves against the rocks, it was only a matter of min befor the mouthfights begain.
That was the first time I have seen those two mad at eatch other (the labs mated just the next day and the kenyi female was producing eggs so I think that raised the aggresion level)

not to mention the lab has a "honey hole" where him and the females hang out and the kenyi male has a place where him and the female hang out, the kenyi was in the labs area.. it ticked him off

froggiegal

Hi Allie / Stevenangela1 and Slug:

Allie - thank you for the link. The final paragraph in the link had me in stitches because I ended up with a Melachromis Auratus who I nicknamed "Killer". He killed everything in my tank and he was living the life of riley in a 45G tank by himslef and a 12"Pleco. I've had this tank for a while. However, like many of the articles state, when I first set it up (many years ago) I was influenced by colors / stripes, etc. As a matter of fact, the Auratus male and females were the cutest cichlid with those yellow stripes going through their bodies horizontally. But looking back, the male had a really mean, mean look in his eye and was defiant even when we approached the tank. Not a lovable fish.

A couple of weeks ago, I found a really good LFS - actually, one of the LFS staff member who helped me is a Fishlore enthusiast and he agreed to take Killer in exchange for new cichlids. He is "really" good and I trust his recommendations - they are spot on when I read up on the cichlids he's recommended. However, the cynatalapia afra that was rubbing his body over the rocks was exhibiting really aggressive behavior against an albino scolofi - he would turn his body almost with a snap, like someone said - giving his finger to the guys in the tank.

I brought him back to the LFS and traded him in for a Copadichromis Borleyi. The tank is tranquil and peaceful once again. My hubby wanted to flush "killer 2" but was happy that we were able to switch the fish!

Steveangela1 - did the yellow lab mate with the kenyi female? I'm waiting for yellow labs to come into my LFS and hope to introduce 1 male / 3 females. Do your fish settle down and stop fighting? Does your stomach tighten up when you see that aggression. So, you change the tank when that happens? I have to tell you I used to want to put my hand in the tank and smack the **** out of the Auratus! Talk about who's the bully - lol

Thank you guys for your input. I'm gonna go and download information on mating yellow labs. I loved seeing the frys being born and hope to see it again!

Angela_96

no the yellow lab and the kenyi male were at it, and we have not had any cross breeding in our tank, they are pretty much mated up, the labs are in one group as far as that goes and the kenyi in another they are just very territorial.

I just decided to clean the tank and the movement in the tank got them calmed down where they were more worried about what I was doing than fighting.

Angela_96

BTW we had some Melachromis Auratus they didn't last 2 days at our house, we took them back to the fishstore asap! they are mean mean fish!
Everyone talks about the kenyi and polits being aggressive, they have nothing on that species!

froggiegal

I'll never get those Melachromis Auratus, ever. BTW, the Socolofi died this weekend - thought he would have a chance taking the "mean guy" back on Saturday - but Sunday morning we found him at the bottom of the tank - Looks like he got stressed out!

Does anyone know what happened to the thread's status? All I see are hyphens in where it shows who posted?

Thank you guys once again for the great help!

Allie

I had a male melanochromis chipokae who ruled the tank in female colors. As soon as I sold him he turned blue. I had him since he was a fry and sold him at 4" I thought he was a she the whole time.
Yes the Melanochromis species are very sweet looking but not so sweet in personality.

Angela_96

We bought into the inocence of their beauty as well.. I thought w/ the kenyi's aggression how bad could these guys be?? I learned really fast!