What's Wrong With My Demasoni?

[ordep19]

hi everyone, I have 3 demasoni cichlids in my 65 gallon aquarium along with 8 other malawi cichlids. My problem is with one of my demasoni. It used to be really active and from what I observed it was the top fish out of the other two demasonis. It seems like one of the other demasoni took his rank now all it does is hide in the top corners or behind the filter perpendicular to the ground. It looks pale and doesn't eat. I'm pretty sure it's a male because it would try to defend it's territory and now it just runs away.
Is it due to stress? Could it possibly be a holding female? Should I put it in my 10gal tank so it can recover?
sorry for the lengthy description but thanks in advance for your help

 

[james41683]

sounds like stress, someone is picking on him, probably another demasoni. with 3 youll quickly end up with one, thats why every suggests to have atleast 12 or just one. they are really nasty to one another and other fish that resemble them.

 

[bullit]

as above

 

[ordep19]

ok thanks for the info. I'm going to get 5 more of them soon, hopefully it works out.

 

[FreshyGirl27]

hey im sorta new to aggressive fish. What other kinds of fish can go with demasoni and how many all together? (29 Gallon,nothing special)

 

[fluvial]

Hi Freshy Girl
I think you'll find that 29 Gals is too small for any Mbuna.
They need alot of numbers to spread the aggression and therefore alot
of space in the tank - with extra filtering.

I'm thinking of progressing into Mbuna one day but know that my 40 gals is
still most probably too small to be really succesful