All Male Mbuna Tank

[roofer no1]

Hi i have an all male mbuna tank and lately my orange hongi's are fighting like mad. Two subdom males are looking worst for wear as they have been fin niped.I need some advice on how too stop it witout spliting them up does any one know weather more rock and moving things around would help please. Ok so i've put it in the wrong place if someone knows how to move it great.

 

[KittyKat]

Some set-up details would help.. a photo would also be useful!

 

[kaivalagi]

It would also make sense to post these mbuna questions in the old world cichlid section, mbuna are from Aafrica not the Americas

 

[GShorty1981]

He knows that, he said it in his first post lol

 

[snowflake311]

Add more fish if you have the space. It works.

 

[kaivalagi]

He knows that, he said it in his first post lol

He know's it''s in the wrong place, and doesn't know how to move it...it can't be moved except for an admin doing it and has it been moved?...no....so to get a response best posting it in the right section.........right?

edit: I've reported the invalid post location now too and asked for it to be moved
edit2: thanks admin

 

[GShorty1981]

You should drop the attitude in your posts.

 

[rifty]

hi mate are you sure they are males? also could you pop up your tank size and stock plz

 

[Nick16]

your problem is in the title mate?

why on earth have you only gone for males? to be honest thats your own fault as 1M 2/3F is the norm. youve gone against that and paid the price. everyone knows male mbuna are territorial.

i suggest you get rid of some males and replace them with ALOT of females. (more to be on the safe sides now you have turned the males agressive)

 

[HappyGeorge]

Simple answer - Rock

Lots of rock. Look a my DIY journal and you'll see a mix of males, some singles and nothing with the 1m 3-5f ratio. I lost 2 Socolofi o inter species agression but have 6 Haps in there, 5 Synos and 2 breeding pairs of Afra and Labs, lots of attitude but too many caves, tunnels and crevices to defend. Not peaceful but no hassled fish what so ever.

I firmly believe with enough rockwork you can eliminate detrimental aggression unless you have something daft like 3m and 1f. All male tanks have been known to work with mbuna but it depends on individuals my Hongis are the quietest fish in my tank.

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

I thought the general stocking plan was one male per four females for any species in the tank, so if you have two or more orange hongi males and no females, its no wonder they are fighting and eventually at least one will die.

 

[Nick16]

Simple answer - Rock

Lots of rock. Look a my DIY journal and you'll see a mix of males, some singles and nothing with the 1m 3-5f ratio. I lost 2 Socolofi o inter species agression but have 6 Haps in there, 5 Synos and 2 breeding pairs of Afra and Labs, lots of attitude but too many caves, tunnels and crevices to defend. Not peaceful but no hassled fish what so ever.

I firmly believe with enough rockwork you can eliminate detrimental aggression unless you have something daft like 3m and 1f. All male tanks have been known to work with mbuna but it depends on individuals my Hongis are the quietest fish in my tank.

afra and labs are really peaceful species and wont normally hassle them to death. syno's are catfish and arent relevant either.

rockwork may help, but not in the long run, you will just get the already weaker fish being out competed for caves and the fighting will continue. sightlines or not. follow the advice already stated, get rid of some males and add alot more females.

did you not read up about cichlids before purchasing them? its a crime if you didnt.

 

[rifty]

Got to be honest i know lots of people with all male set ups no issues but you only need 2 males to upset the balance and its game over. adding females sometimes makes it worse as the males then have 2 things to scrap over!
Also i disagree with the female to male rato some have suggested it all depends on the individual fish! i have pairs and m/f 1to2/3/4/5 and a group of several males that have all worked its a LOT!!! of trail and error with mbuna in general.
another spanner in the works is some times less is more with regards to rock ive had succes with building one stack letting the dom fish stake that one then add others for the sub fish again this is down to the individual fish too! also what is your overall stock levels as adding more fish may also work to spread the agression.

 

[HappyGeorge]

Simple answer - Rock

Lots of rock. Look a my DIY journal and you'll see a mix of males, some singles and nothing with the 1m 3-5f ratio. I lost 2 Socolofi o inter species agression but have 6 Haps in there, 5 Synos and 2 breeding pairs of Afra and Labs, lots of attitude but too many caves, tunnels and crevices to defend. Not peaceful but no hassled fish what so ever.

I firmly believe with enough rockwork you can eliminate detrimental aggression unless you have something daft like 3m and 1f. All male tanks have been known to work with mbuna but it depends on individuals my Hongis are the quietest fish in my tank.

afra and labs are really peaceful species and wont normally hassle them to death. syno's are catfish and arent relevant either.

rockwork may help, but not in the long run, you will just get the already weaker fish being out competed for caves and the fighting will continue. sightlines or not. follow the advice already stated, get rid of some males and add alot more females.

did you not read up about cichlids before purchasing them? its a crime if you didnt.

Sorry thought someone would read my stocking list on journal to show the point.

If you're talking about me reading up, then I most certainly did as you will see from my journal my tank was months in the planning and it paid off and in many places all male tanks were mentioned problem being indentifying males in many instances. I have plenty of fish that aren't so peaceful like Crabros, Demasoni and the Afra's (which in my experience are not peaceful) and there are no problems with them. People love to say it can't be done based on their own experience and no matter how wide ranging that experience it is still only their experience and nothing is going to make it right or wrong. People say you can't keep Haps with Mbuna and you can't breed without removing the female to spit and then feeding the fry special food etc etc etc. Well lovely as that theory is, in my tank it's is just a theory, and a failed one. I have a mix of single male specimens, males with 1-3f and females with more than one male, there are Haps and there are regular trips to the LFS with 2 inch long Afra that were spat in the tank, and survived by finding what food they could and despite the Venustus and Livingstoni's enthusiastic approach to catching them. I grant you that in most cases people have shown that aggressive species like Auratus shouldn't be taken lightly but he was talking about Hongis, which in my experience are extremely peaceful, and I have them in a 1f 2m ratio and they have bred too.
So as I say, more rock, mine has enough that no-one can be out competed as there are more hiding places than fish, no caves just a mass of tunnels, caves are asking for problems I did re-scape once and accidentally formed a cave and the male afra took charge of the whole tank, seemingly believing that anyone who swam close to his cave was a threat, but I re-scaped and the problem vanished.
I agree with the post by rifty that adding females could be a problem at this stage and indeed I have the same experience as him. There is a good deal of trial and error and individual fishes personalities but if the environment isn't right then it will never sort itself.
Synos are only relevant to illustrate the peaceable nature of the tank as they are unhassled and come out to swim in the flow as a group unmolested by the mbuna.

 

[Nick16]

sorry mate, i wasnt suggesting you read up, your not the one with the problem! haha.

yeah i have a mass of tunnels and some caves, but the caves dont have backs to them so again, tunnels!

problem with adding lots of rock is the sight lines, so you have to be really careful.


i still stick to my reasoning of addding more females and reducing the male numbers. i wont say it again because i feel the OP isnt listening and would rather argue that some people can get away with it. clearly its not working for you so why not think about a change? especially if the answer is laid on a plate for you!

the whole point of adding 3 or 4 females per male is that no one fish will be hassled to much. the male will divide his attention between all the females so that at some point they will all get a rest from the hassling. having just males means they are CONSTANTLY hassling each other.