What To Do With A Bully?

[fishyfreak]

I have a large Male, not sure of species, possibly a Sulfer Crested Hap? I've searched my many cichlid books. He's about 6 inches long, slender, dark vibrant blue with a yellow crest along the top of his dorsal. His women are a grey color, very plain. Below is a poor quality pic of him, I couldn't get one with his fins out, he wasn't feeling too well in this pic but he's doing much better now. I took some better pics but they need to be developed.

Anyway, he's terrorizing the entire tank, I've tried to reason with him and my wife's even given him a stern talking to, but to no avail, we turned the lights out and he's calmed down. I'm afraid he's going to start eating some of the smaller guys, a couple of them have bite marks on them. I'm going to re-arrange everything when I get home tonight so that there are new territories and more hiding places. I realize that this is going to happen with cichlids, but if anyone has any suggestions then that would be appreciated.

 

[Ferris]

From the look of it - you have an Aulonocara Maylandi. Not usually an especially aggressive species but cihlids are cichlids and you will get exceptions.

Your best bet is to totally re-aquascape your tank. Move things around completely - that should mess up any established territories and may help to calm things down.

You can't always fix aggression problems with African cichlids though and you will need to keep an eye on this one and if neccessary re-home/return the fish in question.

 

[scooterchick]

You could always try seprating him from the rest of the tank for a couple of weeks also. Either using a divider or putting him in a different tank altogether, this might quieten him down by making him less territorial (I think the theory is he forgets where he's came from and then feels like a newcomer when he goes back int eh main tank). This may or may not work, if not you'll have to consider re-homing for the sake of the otehr fish.

 

[fishyfreak]

Thanks, I got my arms in there and created some more hiding spots for the smaller guys and some larger caves for him, reduced the temperature of the tank from 81 to 78 (ideally I'd like to keep it at 77), and shortened their light time. This has worked great so far.

 

[Ferris]

Thanks, I got my arms in there and created some more hiding spots for the smaller guys and some larger caves for him, reduced the temperature of the tank from 81 to 78 (ideally I'd like to keep it at 77), and shortened their light time. This has worked great so far.

Glad to hear it.