Bullying In A Malawi Tank

[chrisrutter]

hi all
Its been a while since i last posted and my fish have become larger

I have a 4 x 12 x 15 tank with 14 malawi males, however over the last few months they have been bullying one fish. First it was a semi dominate male lab, this was going on over a week or so untill the inevitable happened and he died. I thought this would be the end, but then one of my ice blues has now been bullied near enough till deaths door. I've put the ice blue in quarrentine, but it seams like these fish will always be bullying one fish.

Does any one else have this same problem, and is there anything i can do to help it? Is it because my tank it under populated?

Thanks for any help

Chris

 

[chesterscot]

where do you buy your fish from just noticed your in chester to
scot

 

[chrisrutter]

Oh i've actually moved from Chester to Nottingham. I used to buy my fish all over the place though. There was a really good place just outside of Wrexham on the Holt road. and also one way out towards oswestry.

What about you?

 

[fishlover500]

I have had the beat up 1 fish problem but mostly its just dominant male beating up everyone else

 

[Ace Of Spades]

hi all
Its been a while since i last posted and my fish have become larger

I have a 4 x 12 x 15 tank with 14 malawi males, however over the last few months they have been bullying one fish. First it was a semi dominate male lab, this was going on over a week or so untill the inevitable happened and he died. I thought this would be the end, but then one of my ice blues has now been bullied near enough till deaths door. I've put the ice blue in quarrentine, but it seams like these fish will always be bullying one fish.

Does any one else have this same problem, and is there anything i can do to help it? Is it because my tank it under populated?

Thanks for any help

Chris

You just got to realise these guys are really mean, and know the point on which to take out a weak fish that is suffering alot.

 

[kj23502]

First if it's only 48" x 12" x 15" It's only 37 usg or 31 imp gallons. I would guess that it's still not big enough even though it's 4 feet. That's a really weird tank size. When I calculate 1 fish per 3.5 gallons it comes out to 10.571 fish total so according to the gallonage you're over what I'd reccommend. How about give us a full tank shot so we can rocks/hiding spots? What species do you have? If you have a highly aggressive species you may need to remove or a fish or two. Maybe Ferris will come along w/his experience with his all male tank. I think we do need more info though.

 

[lgarvey]

Return the bully or the victim to the LFS. IF they wont' take credit, offer it for free. =)

I had to do that recently the LFS took the hyper dominant fish back and stuck him in a tank with fish larger than him. All of a sudden "tyson" wasn't being so abusive.

L