fletch

I have just bought 2 baby convict cichlids, a male and a female. I have a community aquarium with an already supposedly aggressive fish in there (demasoni). He gets on fine with the other fish in the aquarium because i got him when he was young, this obviously gave him the chance to accept his surrounding tank mates better. After a few scuffles with the new cichlids everything settled down and the convicts dont seem to be aggressive at all. However, I came back today to find my two silvertip tetras dead with half their fins missing. No other fish where even touched, even the similar tetras in the tank. I presume it was the convicts who did this but why only to the silvertips? Should I get rid of the convicts?

Gunnie

I think you are right. They are prolific breeders, and mean little buggers! I am surprised to know the tetras were attacked instead of the demasoni. You do know that it is not recommended to mix african and new world cichlids, right? I would watch them close.

fletch

what are new world cichlids? As I said, the convicts are only little so they havnt realy bothered the demasoni, he's about 2x bigger. He has chased them around the tank for a while, that seems to have stopped now tho. I think its because they are all similar colours and he wants to be the only blue fish in the tank!

Gunnie

New world cichlids are your South and Central american cichlids. It can work sometimes, but since fish from these different parts of the world have different body language, and don't usually get along very well. Just keep a close eye on it. They may be fine together.

0morrokh

I don't really know a lot about cichlids, but I have heard that Convicts can be nasty, and also that you shouldn't mix cichlids from different parts of the world (like Gunnie said). If you have any other problems, I'd take the Convicts back.

fletch

They seem to be fine now. they havnt attacked each other for a few days. the only thing im confused about is why they attacked the silver tips and not any other tetra

newby sam

Convict cichlids tend to go towards things shiny, eg your silver tips. They are attracted to the flash and threatened by it, almost like Dory in Finding Nemo!

Allie

Silver tips are very aggressive so they probably nipped first...then got the crap kicked out of them

alan l

id move them before they breed they realy get mean

Allie

Yup...if you want any tetra left...I'd advise moving them. We had a huge pair in one our piranha tanks...once they started to breed they'd attack the piranha 3 times their size. They kept half of the 90g to themselves & would attack the piranha if they past a certain point.