Mystery Yellow Lab Deaths

[andy d]

Hello

Wonder if you guys can help.

I found the third death this morning. Looked in great health, full of colour and fins in tact.

To set the scene. I have a 30 gallon 3 ft tank which had 8 "Labidochromis Caeruleus" yellow labs in. Was set up as a community tank prior so its an established tank. Plenty rock work and frequent water changes. Then after a month or so one died, it seemed quite small and weak so i wrote it off as an inevitable death. Then the second one died, again it looked a little small as well so just thought it had been bullied or something. But the third one was in great health and got my suspicions going.

So, I went to lfs and asked them to test the water parameters. I have a kit but the charts are for saltwater. I know roughly what the colours should be but thought it best to take some down and they said it was fine.

Suspicions are:

1. Dominant male attacking the others. (One does seem quite aggressive and 2 have eggs in their mouths so he could be "pumped" up from breeding)
2. Disease (I cant see anything obvious although I’ve never had any to see as far as I know)
3. Food (they don’t seem to be eating very much but again the third one was really healthy and growing well)

Any ideas?

 

[glolite]

Sounds like a dominant male attack. Although yellow labs aren't known for being the most aggressive cichlids, in a species only tank more than one male will compete for territory. You really need a 55g minimum for these fish even though they're only small at the moment.

With African cichlids there is usually only one male to a harem of females, whereas with American cichlids, most pair for life, ie 1 male 1 female.

Are they big enough to sex yet? I'd stick with 1 male if possible and aim to upgrade to a bigger tank by the time the fish are mature.

 

[andy d]

Oh. I read that 30 gallon with 3ft would be ok, admittedly it said it was the minimum.

I'm not sure how to sex them? A friend is setting up a big tank soon so I could put them in his. Don't want to cause more problems if they're going to out grow the tank.

Would it be worth adding another species?

 

[glolite]

If you only keep one species with 1 male to around 3 females plus extra filtration you should be ok. Your friends bigger tank would be better, it's normally the aggression when breeding that's the issue, rather than inches of fish to gallons of water.

In a 30g you'd really be better with pairs of rams/apistos/(rainbow ciclids these need 4f tank if more than 1 pair kept).

Having said that, I keep one male and five female electric blue ahlis in a 45g and they are breeding successfully. They should be in a 55g but the extra females seem to keep the male docile. It really depends on the individual fish disposition and filtration. I run the internal juwel which came with the tank plus an eheim external filter.

Happy fishkeeping

 

[andy d]

Thanks for the info.

i have two internal filters. Fluval 4's. Dont have room to have an ext atm.