AboutKaren Fields Expertise I own and maintain a large number of tanks with many various tropical fish species. During my fishkeeping past I have learned a lot of the myths and truths about tropical fish care. Currently I keep a wide range of species and have a lot of experience in; Severum cichlids, gouramis, platies, goldfish, bettas, tetras, paradise fish, Angelfish, Corydoras catfish, and many others as well as a couple of years with brackish water.
If you have a question on tropical fish keeping I`ll be sure to answer it in the simplest way I can, and if I don`t know the answer, I`ll research the answer for you.
Happy fish keeping!
Experience I have experience in setting up fish tanks, what to feed certain species, compatible species in my experience, cleaning the tank,
and all around tropical fish care. I also have learned the truth of many of the myths of tropical fish keeping in the past.
Happy fishkeeping!
Question Hello, I have recently set up a 55 gallon african cichlid fish tank. I have 13 cichlids (Juvys) in it right now.
1 Yellow lab
1 Blue zebra
1 albino cichlid with red fins on top and 3 egg spots
1 male kenyi
1 male johanni
1 Auratus
1 male Electric blue Ahli
1 Peacock cichlid (it is white with black spots and sort of orange) do you know what it is?
1 red empress
1 livingstonii
2 frontosa
1 borleyi hap ( I dont think it is a borleyi because it has sulfer yellow on his head and blue everywhere else with 1 black line)
OKAY, so the Johanni is chasing everybody and just being mean everyday! Should i remove him from my tank ? my tank seems like its so agressive because my ahli chases the (borleyi) and the tank realy is never calm
Water is perfect
25% water change every week- to two weeks
75 gallon filter
lots of rock 50 plus pounds
PS my auratus is so wierd cause somedays he/she is yellow and black and somedays brown and dull
what should i do to help the agression problems?
I KNOW MY TANK IS SLEGHTLY OVERSTOCKED!
PLZ NO COMMENTS ABOUT OVERTOCKING
Answer Hi there,
Johani african cichlids in general are a very territorial and aggressive species. Males in particular are very bossy and may continually dominate and attempt to kill other males or perhaps even other species.
Ahlis and Auratus are both quite aggressive species with Auratus being one of the most aggressive mbunas. Obviously their behavior and such creates a situation where it can be hard to mix them with other species.
You tank may simply not have enough territorial boundaries and hiding retreats for the other fish if they are getting continually bullied.
And if the aggression continues you may be better off giving away the most aggressive cichlids.
Its difficult to know the peacock cichlid species you have because there are so many hybrids of almost every african cichlid species. It definitely sounds like a hybrid though. Try checking out this photo
