BlowPhish

I wanted to share some interesting behavior of the fish in my mixed Cichlid tank. Most of our fish are mbuna but we've got others Cichlids in there as well including 1 Red Jewel and 1 Mystery fish that turned out to be a Peacock. Now one would think that the Jewel would be beating up on the Mbuna and the peacock would be alot more timid than the Mbuna. Enter twilight zone. In fact the Peacock is the boss of the tank and the Jewel is chased away almost everywhere he goes. This is even more suprising since we have 2 of the most aggressive Mbuna species with a P. Socolfi and an M. Johanni. The Jewel isn't taking any damage but he's clearly not happy. I'm at the point of bringing the Jewel to the LFS. We rearranged things and added more territory using river rocks and a new clay pot but it didn't help. Other than that things are going well with out mixed Malawi/CA setup. We're driving to Calgary in March to bring a big tank home for them.

Nick G

Jewels do far better with American Cichlids than African. You'd probably be better off removing the Jewel if you can. I keep my Jewels with Oscars 10 times their size and they do fine. They just don't do well with other Africans for some reason.

BlowPhish

Yeah I'm considering it he's been isolating himself lately. He's par for size with the rest of the fish. I've got a yellow tailed acei half his size that has his own territory. I just got off the phone with a fellow selling a 66 gallon with canister/hood/heater for 400 bucks. I might pick it up this weekend and try the jewel in there first. But if I don't end up getting it I'll bring him to the lfs.

Angela_96

Actually the Socolfi is a more peaceful breed of mbuna compared to the rest.

Nick G

Good idea! It's weird that they don't do well with other Africans because they're REALLY aggressive fish. They terrorize community fish and other similar sized American Cichlids. Mine won't even back down from the Oscars, who kill anything else thats put in the tank! But put them with Africans and they turn into the worlds biggest Wusses!

BlowPhish

Thanks for the info! I was under the impression they were one of the more aggressive species.

Angela_96

Yea out of the species my list of the pains are: aurartus, polit, kenyi, tropheops, and crabro. Of coarse I had a crabro that was very peaceful . I had 2 scolofi's die victim of my female kenyi, they were very timid.

BlowPhish

Can you guys think of any possible solutions to make the jewel more comfortable in case a bigger tank doesn't solve the problem? I'd like to leave taking him back to the LFS as a last resort.

Blowphishs' GF

Hi all...I'm learning as we go, i know way less than 'blowphish' does and he is helping me learn more each day (this is the first time I've ever had any involvement w/ a tank) but I do have to say that the 'jewel' is on my list of favorite's and if there is a way that you can help us to find a way to keep him I would appreciate that :-)