Cichlid disagreements- Discus, Angelfish, Africans, Rams, large cichlids, etc. Do your cichlids squabble a lot?

We watch my fish a lot, their in my bedroom & I’ve noticed that cichlids are the most argumentative interactive little fish ever!!
There not killing each other, but my angels & discus are constantly posturing, butt slapping, moving each other out of the way & sometimes mouth battling each other. Especially the same 2 or 3 fish. Almost like little kids, lol.
I don’t want to call it outright fighting, because no ones getting hurt at all, but they are always having these little disagreements amongst themselves & my discus are far more aggressive than my angelfish have ever been. And the angels just move out of their way except one bigger angel female.
And if like another species, like a tetra chases them, they have a fit... like how dare you? Do your cichlids squabble? Or are they well behaved?

 

My Bolivians do have little "fights". Nothing ever comes of it. Its just in their nature. They never go near fish other than rams. Except when they have fry, then they'll just dash forward a little to scare them away.

Then again though, many of my fish fight. My gobies, tetra, rasbora, danios, gourami and so on. Not unique to the rams. Though its more interesting and kinda cute to see the rams interacting. I always recommend them in at least pairs.

 

Yeah mine do. I only have 2 of them with plenty of space for each one to claim an area, but they both want the same spot in the tank. They're not really aggressively fighting, but they don't like each other either. I actually love their personalities though, they're really entertaining fish to watch.

 

Mine do that too. Be careful about introducing new ones, just FYI, they will terrorize new members of the same species. I added 3 angels to my 2 in a 40 gallon, two weeks went by and the originals were always ALWAYS picking at the new ones. Moved them all to a new tank, 0 problems. Do you have pics of the tank? I'd love to see it.

 

One of my discus (named Clyde) is a total jerk! When I only had 3 in the tank he singled one out and would relentlessly chase, nip, etc. now theirs 4 in the tank and he’s a little better. . . But compared to the rest. . . He’s still a jerk.

 

One of my Metriaclima callainos (OB Cobalt Blue) had another one by the mouth, upside down shaking the slime coat off of him! I thought the smaller shaken one was dead, but I tapped on the tank to break it up and they both swam off unhurt. My Iodotropheus sprengerae (Rusty Cichlid) are always lip locking and T-boning each other but so far they just seem to have scuffed lips lol!

Scuffed lips, a few frayed scales.

 

One of my Metriaclima callainos (OB Cobalt Blue) had another one by the mouth, upside down shaking the slime coat off of him! I thought the smaller shaken one was dead, but I tapped on the tank to break it up and they both swam off unhurt. My Iodotropheus sprengerae (Rusty Cichlid) are always lip locking and T-boning each other but so far they just seem to have scuffed lips lol!View attachment 633213
Scuffed lips, a few frayed scales.

Lol, I see this one was squabbling. What is the cichlid lip locking about? I’m try post a video of mines arguing if I can get it to upload on the site.

 

Lol, I see this one was squabbling. What is the cichlid lip locking about? I’m try post a video of mines arguing if I can get it to upload on the site.

Fighting over girls, what else? Lol!

 

Lol, I see this one was squabbling. What is the cichlid lip locking about? I’m try post a video of mines arguing if I can get it to upload on the site.

My Blue Acara sometimes quarrel, it's very rare though. My big male claimed a cave that I put in a while ago, that got a bit messy, I didn't see it but there was damage from lip locking.

 

Watch the blue diamond & ghost discus behind the log in this video. They always do this squabbling thing, those same two fish.

 

Cichlids will be cichlids. They will lip lock, chase around the tank and bang on each other. Its just all part of the game to them. As long as they have there space or area that's theres, No real issues. Sometimes the Oscar will invade the other fish but they soon turn him around and send him running. I am sure if my oscar was mean he could kill all three, but he "Plays" with them so I guess I am lucky. My last aquarium had the same type four fish Plus a Black Ghost Knifefish and a Jaguar cichlid in it. They all got along just fine. All males and same here.
Anyway, grab a bag of popcorn, Put on some music and watch the show!

 

My second most aggressive fish is a male Electric Blue Acara who will always stand his ground but means no harm and will push around the Severums who are twice his size.

My most aggressive fish by some margin, who all the other fish are scared of is my female Kribensis of 2.5". Other fish mess with her at their peril. I call her Mrs Tyson. She'd take on any Oscar and win.