Fish Fighting In Circles? Help!

[callaghan]

So I have a 55gallon tank, with 8 cichlids

they are all african cichlids with rocks and plants..

i have had them for about 4 months now and they have been fine until today
i noticed an electric yellow cichlid going after another cichlid im unsure of the name, the same size. looking like they were fighting but rapidly spinning in circles over and over again
then, a few hours later i noticed the bumblebee cichlid i have did the exact same thing with the same cichlid the electric yellow one was doing it with.

i dont know what im supposed to do it just seems they have been very aggressive today..
i also introduced a male bumblebee to the tank and the female doesnt seem to be taking it too well.. she will also chase him around but not fight him like the others.

thennnnn one of the johannis did the same thing with the biggest cichlid in the tank..

any help???

 

[lyotim88]

you could like double your stock but what filter are you running on it?

 

[callaghan]

doubling it making them less aggressive ya?
they havent done things like this before, and my filter is made for up to 75 gallons
2 bio wheels
its a marineland powerfilter penguin 350

 

[ntK]

So I have a 55gallon tank, with 8 cichlids

they are all african cichlids with rocks and plants..

i have had them for about 4 months now and they have been fine until today
i noticed an electric yellow cichlid going after another cichlid im unsure of the name, the same size. looking like they were fighting but rapidly spinning in circles over and over again
then, a few hours later i noticed the bumblebee cichlid i have did the exact same thing with the same cichlid the electric yellow one was doing it with.

i dont know what im supposed to do it just seems they have been very aggressive today..
i also introduced a male bumblebee to the tank and the female doesnt seem to be taking it too well.. she will also chase him around but not fight him like the others.

thennnnn one of the johannis did the same thing with the biggest cichlid in the tank..

any help???

You are having aggression issues due to numerous problems with your stock setup.

First of all you do not have enough fish for a 55G to tone down on aggression.

Second of all you mentioned you have a bumblebee cichlid and a johanni. These are way too aggressive for a 55G tank.

Third, it sounds like you do not have the correct amount of females per male in your setup. For a 55G tank the max amount of different species of mbuna you should have would be 3. Depending on what species these 3 are you then need to include 3-4 females per male. These fish are harem breeders and will never do well with only 1 female or less of their species. Unless you are attempting an all male tank which is very difficult to pull off for mbuna.

My suggestions:

Make sure you have enough caves and territories in your tank (mbuna means rock dwelling which is what these fish you have are) so you can never have too many rocks and territories setup in your tank. Next you will have to redo your stocklist if you truly want your cichlids to get along. This will mean definitely removing your bumble bee and johanni cichlids, and figuring out 3 species you wish to keep. Finally make sure you have a good male to female ratio for these 3 species of cichlids.

Also your filtration is decent for this tank, but you can never have too much filtration and if you continue to house these cichlids you will probably want to add another filter to your tank. My 55 is running 2 HOB filters which cycle 800 gallons per hour together. The more filtration, the easier doing water changes and gravel vacing are.

 

[skittz]

i agree with ntk.....
u can also re arrange the tank each time u clean it it helps with dominance in the tank