mi6969

I have a yellow chiclids that seems to kill everything I put in the tank even other chiclids. What is the secrete to having more than 1 fish in a tank. I just bought 2 more chiclids from the local store but as soon as I put them in the tank the yellow 1 starts attacking and wont let up. I know the easy solution would be to get rid of him but he's kinda growing on me. I'm new to this and could use some advice. Also I've wanted to have a nice catfish but once again the yellow fish killed them all, is this possible to have these fish coexist without too many fatalities? The only fish I know it's name is a firemouth.

[IMG]ftp://webpages.charter.net./Picture%20092.jpg[/IMG]

Steen16

if ur yellow guy was in there for a while it probly now thinks the whole tank is its teritory..
best thing to do i think is to introduce fish bigger than it and more then two at a time..
smaller fish tend to give bigger fish a wide birth...
And make sure you are introducing fish of similar temprament!

if in doubt

mi6969

http://s411.photobucket.com/albums/p...Picture092.jpg

Right now he's on a time out. lol

Here's one that I just bought.
http://s411.photobucket.com/albums/p...Picture110.jpg

http://s411.photobucket.com/albums/p...Picture116.jpg

Steen16

if that was a picture i cant see it cause im on work computer..
and web marshel doesnt let me see it lolol

Slug

Looks like an albino Melanochromis auratus to me. Melanochromis auratus is a VERY VERY VERY mean species, its hard to get any other species to live with it.

What size tank is this?

mi6969

It's a 55 gal. And ya he seems to kill everything I've put in with him so far. He was the only fish in the tank for the last six months. He's killed several other chiclids and several catfish and a couple algae eaters all in the 2 to 3" range.

Angela_96

The Melanochromis auratus is a lake malawi mbuna, you should never mix an african lake malawi mbuna with any other cichild from other lakes.

That speices does not coexsit well w/ other mbuna even the females of that speices takes a nasty beating from the males. If you do get more of his species I would suggest a 4:1 ratio of females to male to scatter the aggression.

Mbuna do better w/ lots of rocks and caves to have hidding spots and territories and overstocking the tank. My 55g mbuna tank has around 15 fish in it right now.
That is also not a good species for a beggainer cichild tank, you prob should stick with the more peaceful species of mbuna if that is what you like, such as a yellow lab, red zebra, etc.

Allie on here has a link for good species for beggainers, and a cookie cutter for mixing cichlids.

I would only put a catfish from lake malawi in the tank w/ a melanochromis auratus and a pretty good sized one at that.

That is the one species I had for a very short time, tried to pair up w/ a female and got rid of as soon as I could, in fact I literally gave them back to the fish store!

mi6969

Thank you at least I know what I'm dealing with. I have him in a breader cage right now to protect my other fish.

mi6969

I actually like this guy what would you suggest for other fish?

Angela_96

This guy as in me? I am actually angela, my husband and I always use the same login for all of our forums, etc...

As in fish, I would try to stir clear of any fish w/ the same color patterns, and I would go w/ other of the same species staying away from adding any more males if your fish is a male, I would ad the 4:1 ratio with any cichilds you ad to the tank, and I would ad cichlids 4-5 at a time waiting a few days between stocking.

They also like a pH of 8.0 with hard water. I would feed them 3 times a day at least, the less hungry they are the less cranky they are. Keep the meaty foods down to an every other day thing and only once every other day skipping weekends, most mbuna are veggie eaters. A good spruilla flake and putting veggies in the tank like peas, zuchinni, cucumber, etc is really good for their diet.

I would stir clear of mixing 2 of any group such as 2 metraclima group (ie kenyi and greyshaki cichilds do not mix) 2 labs (hongi and yellow labs) and so on.

This is a great resource for stocking a 55g tank:
http://cichlidforum.com/articles/cookie_cutter_55g.php

Also here is another good resource for species friendly for starting out:
http://cichlidforum.com/articles/spe..._beginners.php

Allie is the one who posted the above links in other post, they are great guides to go by.

I have a ton of different species of cichlids and one thing for sure, there are some cichlids that do not like each other, I have lost one of my fav cichlids to my female kenyi when she was ready to spawn from violence. That has been my only outburst in my tanks.