Target Fish To Reduce Aggression Amongst Mbuna?

[ab420]

I have a mbuna tank that is getting pretty aggressive with eachother, and I was considering adding some "target fish" per recommendations from several people/websites.

The aggressor's are Metriaclima Estherae

I heard that Giant Danios and Australian Rainbowfish are good target fish, has anyone tried this with any success? What fish would you recommend as a target?

 

[Canadian]

Target fish are a good idea when you have really agressive fish. I would suggest anything that is a fast swimmer, I can't really recomend any fish, because i have no experiance with mbunas.

 

[ozzy47]

My Personal opinion is to add ore mbuna, as long as your filtration is good you can overstock a malawi tank which then spreads the aggression as they are all to busy looking over thier shoulder rather than being aggressive, that is in my experiance and i breed them, hope this helps

stewy

 

[ab420]

My Personal opinion is to add ore mbuna, as long as your filtration is good you can overstock a malawi tank which then spreads the aggression as they are all to busy looking over thier shoulder rather than being aggressive, that is in my experiance and i breed them, hope this helps

stewy

The problem is, I'm trying to deal with newbie mistakes and LFS advice lol...

Basically, I have a 38 gallon tank (only 3 ft. wide) with 10 mbuna in there. They are all around 3", but will be more in the 5" range when they are done growing. I have 2 HOB filters running with more than 10x turnover an hour, and I do 2 water changes weekly, (one 25% and one 40%) which keeps the nitrates extremely low (generally under 10). So as far as filtration goes, I wouldn't have any trouble with more fish, but I wonder if there's enough room? What do you think?

 

[Ferris]

I would agree with your concerns over not having enough room for more fish - The problem is this also goes for "target fish".

I would suggest a good tank rearranging session. Move all the rocks/decor around to disrupt their territories. If this doesn't work i would reccommend returning the serious aggressors to your LFS as it is likely to get worse as they grow towards adulthood.

I am not a big believer in using target fish with Mbuna, it seems to work well with some of the big NW cichlids but i have never had any success personally using them with Mbuna.

 

[Gatorbait]

The problem with target fish and Mbuna is that Mbuna will be quicker than the target fish you put in there so they won't last long and you're back to square one. Personally, I wouldn't bother trying but it's up to you.

You could probably add a couple more and hope it works itself out but there's a chance it won't and you'll be back to square one with more fish.

You could take the agressive ones back and leave it as is or add a few more but there will again be a struggle for dominance. Just cross your fingers that the most dominant fish won't harass as much.

One thing that has worked very well for me is having a Melanochromis chipokae. IMO, they are the toughest Mbuna and they will get to the top in almost every setup. It will not be pretty as they fight their way up but once dominant, they will usually not let others fight and they don't bother anyone else unless they get too cocky. It's my favorite fish for this reason and that they are beautiful fish also.

 

[Boids-n-more]

If cash is on hand you can get a bigger tank. You can also add alot more hideing spaces. I feel your tank is too small to add any target fish but with a bigger tank and more hideing spots i would go with the giant danioes.