Unusual Behaviour? (lombardis)

[electric yellow]

Im pretty sure this is posted in the right area but if it's not could someone move it please


(Im sorry i dont know their actually cichlid breed name)

I have a problem...well two actually.

Problem one:

Male lombardis are born blue and silver and turn yellow when mature. It was great watching him turn silver blue to yellow. But he is behaving badly. He is picking off my fish one by one...

I use to have my male lombardi in our communal cichlid tank and after he hit maturity he got really agressive towards the other fish. He started death rolling them...then my other cichlids went from 8 to two I observed one day that he was picking them off one by one...so I put him in a tank all on his own to settle him down. He is not going back in the communal tank. My problem with him is...he is in a tank with an internal filter and air pipe and sand. What he's doing is he is getting mouthfulls of sand and spitting it around the tank. Its like hes barricaiding himself in. He just digs through the sand and moves it. Spits it around...digs and spits...digs and spits...

Hes taking it from the middle and under the filter and spitting it around the edge of the tank to create...a wall...i guess. Is there something wrong withhim? He is being fed well and the water levels and tests are all fine. He is going to our friends tank next week as he is taking up our breeding tank. Im just worried...hes being so agressive. Hes about 5mths old. Is the sand relocation by him normal? He would move the gravel around in our other tank but not the extent he is doing it now...

Problem two:

Our female lombardi who is the same age as the male is being more agressive than usual. She is mature aswell but is also developing a yellow tinge to her. Like she is turning yellow...she never USE to have the yellow tinge. Is it possible shes a late bloomer and is actually a male? Males change colour quite young though and shes the same age and size as the other. She has a yellow spot on her dorsal fin aswell. Is this normal? Her agression is growing...

Males turn totally yellow...girls dont!

Also the male had destinguishable black stripes when he was in the communal tank...now he doesnt...he looks plain bright yellow. The male lombardi nudged my electric yellow to death and the female now is doing the same thing...

Male lombardi...

Female...

 

[darrel69]

M.lombardoi 's are really aggressive !! (as you now know) ... and some people say they shouldn't be kept in a tank no less than a 75gal. (though i have a female in a 50gal)

What other fish do you have in with him ?

I was thinking of getting a male to go with my female but i soon changed my mind after doing some research on here !!

Mbuna are natural diggers and will rearange your tank to suit themselfs. So yes, him digging around with your sand is normal behaviour. Mine do it all the time and IMO looks better and more natural than 'leveled out' sand.

If your female is fully grown, i doubt she is a "late bloomer", although i could be wrong. The yellow spot you see is also normal. Its an Egg Spot that just shows that the fish is a mouthbrooder. Although males tend to have numerous egg spots while females tend to have 0, 1 or maybe 2.

btw, i can only see you picture of the male, i cant see any pic of a female only a logo for futunecity ???

 

[dthoffsett]

As darrel pointed out, metriaclima lombardoi are extremely aggressive, so it's not surprising he was picking off his tankmates. And yes, they LOVE to dig, mine constantly rearrange the substrate in their tank, I love watching them dig and spit sand.

Sometimes sub-dominate males will take on a females coloration to avoid being picked on by the dominate male. So it's possible you had two males to begin with, and once you removed the dominate male, the other one is now becoming the dominate. Conversely, some females when kept without males will start taking on a males coloration (though never as vibrant). Females can be just as aggressive as males, and will also have their own pecking order. The only way to be sure is to vent the fish in question.
[URL="http/www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/gender.php"]http/www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/gender.php[/URL]

As far as the male in the 10gal not showing his stripes, they ususally become darker with aggression, or attempting to breed. So, since he's by himself, he has no reason to show his stripes.

I'm also curious as to what tank size and fish you are keeping.

 

[electric yellow]

As darrel pointed out, metriaclima lombardoi are extremely aggressive, so it's not surprising he was picking off his tankmates. And yes, they LOVE to dig, mine constantly rearrange the substrate in their tank, I love watching them dig and spit sand.

Sometimes sub-dominate males will take on a females coloration to avoid being picked on by the dominate male. So it's possible you had two males to begin with, and once you removed the dominate male, the other one is now becoming the dominate. Conversely, some females when kept without males will start taking on a males coloration (though never as vibrant). Females can be just as aggressive as males, and will also have their own pecking order. The only way to be sure is to vent the fish in question.
<a href="http/www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/gender.php" target="_blank">http/www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/gender.php</a>

As far as the male in the 10gal not showing his stripes, they ususally become darker with aggression, or attempting to breed. So, since he's by himself, he has no reason to show his stripes.

I'm also curious as to what tank size and fish you are keeping.

Thanks for that. I have my cichlids in a 4-5ft tank. Large enough for them. Its not over crowded. not even crowded. I put him in a 3ft by himsellf to settle him down. The other fish seem a lot less stressed and happyer now. The female isnt really to agressive towards the others. Shes the smallest of the cichlids apart from the convicts.

We had 47degreee days here last week so we lost three fish due to a hot house. Nothing could cool them down. One being the male lombardi

So i guess the issues have settled themselves down...when he was in the 3ft by himself he was happy. He'd dig and spit dig and spit all day long. I went shopping for a 6x2x2ft or 5x2x2ft tank today and found a few beauties We want tank solely for our cichlids where they can grow and swim large.