Help! Jewel Agression Is Getting Worse...

[supaman900s]

I have had these two for little over a week and a half, a convict and jewel, both juvenile. At first they were getting along great but lately my convict has pretty much just stayed in the top right hand corner of the tank, under the heater(its laid diagnol in my tank). And when it does come out for a look-see around the tank, my jewel chases it all around, it does not make any attempt to bite or ram the convict, just kind of chases it around the tank, till it sees something else that interests it. But my convict then retreats to the same spot under the heater, looking sad I don't want the convict to get hurt, but i also love the personalities these fish normally possess, but this fish is not showing it. It almost seems very gentle. But really what i am trying to ask is, Is this chasing hurting my convict? Will it eventually hurt it? Will the convict ever stand up and bully the jewel back? is their any resolution to this behavior? To offset it, i just put just about every loose fish tank rock or plant i had laying around my house into the tank to provide more shelter to my, up until recently pretty bare tank...

Oh yea my tank is a US 30g long tank...

 

[vancouver]

If it's not getting better there's a chance it's only going to get worse.. If the convict is cowering in a corner all the time, it's probably extremely scared of the jewel.. Even if the jewel is beating it up badly, the convict could die from the stress alone.

 

[thegnu]

yes i agree, going by the size of adult fish i rate jewels as the meanest of the mean

 

[Gatorbait]

I concur with the others. I'd take one or the other out as you most likely will end up with a dead convict soon.

 

[The-Wolf]

IMHO & IME juwel cichlids are more aggressive than M.auratus
especialy when spawning.

 

[SamUK]

IMHO & IME juwel cichlids are more aggressive than M.auratus
especialy when spawning.

after having an auratus kill all my malawis i can definately say that cant be good!





EDIT - damnit! i got jewels mixed up with keyholes (dont kno how) and i have a jewel!


so thats where all my neons went?!? lol

i rescued one about a fortnight ago.

im so dumb.

his mouth doesnt look big enough to eat a neon tho

 

[vancouver]

Jewels are definitely serious when it comes to territorial disputes..

Shouldn't really keep jewels with anything similar in size to them.. especially convicts

 

[supaman900s]

Okay i had to do it so i got rid of the jewel... so that my two convicts, one pink, one zebra could live in peace...

but the zebra is still acting a little down, will time eventually make it better?

p.s. the two convicts show zero sign of aggression towards each other...

 

[Gatorbait]

Okay i had to do it so i got rid of the jewel... so that my two convicts, one pink, one zebra could live in peace...

but the zebra is still acting a little down, will time eventually make it better?

p.s. the two convicts show zero sign of aggression towards each other...

What's a zebra? Do you mean an Mbuna? I'm not too good with common names.

 

[vancouver]

It's just a regular convict I think he means

 

[supaman900s]

It's just a regular convict I think he means

Yea just the common, white and black one. Um if my two mate, what will the fry look like? could they passably be pink with stripes?

 

[chrisdoesntmiss]

You should just get a mixture of the two variations

I had a jewel in with a breeding pair of convicts, and another lone convict/firemouth cross, strangly enough the jewel and convict got together and laid some eggs. Completely infertile but still an odd pair.

Eventually the jewel had to go, far to much aggression from the breeding convicts. She and her convict lover are now residing in the future father in laws tank, with guppys, neons and platys and a giant 14 inch common plec called Gordon. If anything the jewel is timid towards everything. I have never come across such strange behaviour before.

 

[SamUK]

well i have to say apart from the lack of neons i now have, my jewel seems fine.



i dont really like saying that tho untill the fish is atleast a year old so im jus keeping a close eye on it.