Jewel Cichlids (young)

[fuzzyferret]

I have a tank full of fry that I will shortly be fishing out and putting in a separate tank to bring them on.

Question is this.....
They are quite argumentative little fishies when in a group on their own, and seem to constantly be pecking at each other. Is there a way of stopping this?

The only thing I could think of would be putting one of my large African cichlids in there with them - not to chase them around - or eat them, but to give them something else to focus upon. If they are zipping away from the big fish, then they (hopefully) can't be picking on each other at the same time.

I had a large yellow labidachromis caeruleus in there with my previous fry, but they are quite peaceful so didn't stop the jewels causing mayhem. I think I may need something of the same size but not super aggessive.

Has anyone else come across this?

 

[jgray152]

How large is your tank? What ype of Jewel Cichlids do you have? Ruby red or turqoius Blue?

Also how long have you had them? do you see any sings of clinched fins? Jewels should alsways have their tail faned out 99% of the time.

I have had to much experience with new jewels getting some type of desease that I have yet to figure out. It takes about 8 months to completly kill them. Its like cancer. Stress Related I think.

With Jewels if one fish is sick for any reason no matter how sick, the healthy one will always go after the sick one. No stopping it.

 

[fuzzyferret]

Hi - thanks for replying. They are 'normal' Jewel Cichlids (Hemichromis Guttatis or Bimaculata - not sure).

I had 14 young (less than 1 inch long) in a 180 long tank with lots of hiding places.

They didn't try to hide - just kept facing off with each other - like a gang of kids who constantly push each other around for no good reason.

I had to keep a very close eye on them - they didn't peck at the fins of a fish, but at the body. Some looked rather battered and were the bullies, others were battered and were obviously the 'weaker' ones.

Apart from the stronger ones having better colour (some of the more submissive ones turned themselves a bit darker coloured), the ones who came off worse didn't run from a fight, but just came off worse! No clenched fins - just flaring of gills and aggressive behaviour to each other.

These 14 have now disappeared to the fish store, but hopefully will be bought before they fully finish each other off!

It's not like they needed more space - not at that size, but I have a new lot of fry to put in my tank and thought that a larger fish may make them more aware so that they didn't spend as much time scrapping with each other.