# Desperate for some pointers!



## Chevyman (Oct 27, 2011)

Hey everybody. 
To start out I have had a 29 gallon tank with 7 African cichlid running very well for about the last 10 months. When it first got going the fish were still very small, but in just a short amount of time they have grown to be roughly 2 to 3 inches long. They have gotten along pretty well but about the last 2 months I have seen a rise in aggression. I went to my local family owned fish store to find out why they were getting so aggressive and if I could do anything to solve the problem. and needless to say the answers I got weren't that helpful. So I am looking to get help and some pointers on how I can solve the problems I am having. I do have my eye on a few used 55 gal. tanks on CL. Thanks in advance for any help or ideas you can give


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## Berylla (Mar 4, 2013)

The simple answer is hat your tank is too small. Depending on the breed of cichlid, they can get a foot long or longer. What types of Africans do you have. Photos will be helpful too if you are not sure.


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## coralbandit (Jul 29, 2012)

1^ with Berylla on tank size and here is a recent thread;http://www.aquariumforum.com/f42/mbuna-aggresion-43190.html


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## rayray74 (Mar 19, 2013)

also.. a good rule of thumb with cichlids is tank size divide by half and that's your number of fish. So for a 30 gallon get 15 fish.
"overstocking" cuts down territorial aggression. They like to school.


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## TroyVSC (Aug 29, 2012)

rayray74 said:


> also.. a good rule of thumb with cichlids is tank size divide by half and that's your number of fish. So for a 30 gallon get 15 fish.
> "overstocking" cuts down territorial aggression. They like to school.


OP make sure you have lots of filtration if you go this route. If the fish are going to get too big you can always get in on the next $1pg sale at petco or search craigslist for another larger tanks.


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## dalfed (Apr 8, 2012)

What types of Africans are you keeping? How many male and female of each? Post pics if you are not sure.


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## Chevyman (Oct 27, 2011)

I had heard of the over crowding rule before just never thought it was true. And as far as what kind the fish are I can only remember 3. A yellow lab, albino, and a jewel. I have pics just haven't figured out how to get them up yet.


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## dalfed (Apr 8, 2012)

First off how are you feeding these when the mbuna need a strict veggie diet and the jewel is straight carnivore? Secondly unfortunately your jewel has about another six months to kill the mbuna or it will be terrorized and hiding all the time at best or dead at worst. Sorry to be so blunt but these fish do not go well together the jewel is a river cichlid with soft water as a home, while your mbuna live in very hard water. They do not communicate the same way therefore there is no signals received when one wants to back off on the fight. Please post pics if you have haps or peacocks as well you could try to move the mbunas to a separate tank and leave the jewels with the haps and peacocks it may work.


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## Chevyman (Oct 27, 2011)

Well i think i got it figured out. I did figure out another kind i have. It is a Salvini.


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## dalfed (Apr 8, 2012)

Looks like you have a Brichardi in there as well. I would see if you could exchange or rehome the jewel and the brichardi, or keep the brichardi only and get a mate and watch one of the most amazing cichlids show their parenting ways.


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## Chevyman (Oct 27, 2011)

Which one is the Brichardi? so should i be looking at getting a bigger tank? i wouldnt mind getting just a few more either. thoughts? would a 10 gal be to small for a pair of brichardi? thanks for all the help so far. i am getting the feeling that i didnt quite do enough research before getting a few of my fish.


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## dalfed (Apr 8, 2012)

It is hard to tell for sure if it is but the first picture fish that is at top in the background. The Fairy Cichlids of Lake Tanganyika (Full Article) | Details | Articles | TFH Magazine® take a look and compare my old eyes may be deceiving me.


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## dalfed (Apr 8, 2012)

Your 29 would be ok for a pair as long as you were able to move the babies, then if you got a bigger tank you could house the mbuna in that.


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## Chevyman (Oct 27, 2011)

what would be the max amount in a 55 gal?


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## Rod4Rodger (Jan 2, 2012)

The rise in aggression is because they are reaching breeding age. I have had African Cichlids in a 110 gallon. They will mark out territory and become aggressive in any size tank. They will breed to fill the holes. I highly recommend the 55 gallon tank. That is a great size, especially if you ever need to move. Fill it up with hiding places. I went to the local landscape shop and bought real slate sheets. I had a friend at the time that went to a mountain dry river bed and gathered polished river rock. Either way you want something that is not going to dissolve and is natural, no treatments. I washed and sunned mine. My friend went a step farther and boiled them a few at a time in a big pot. Fill the inside of the tank up. Stack them where they are stable and not about to shift and crush the fish but where there are a lot of open cracks and not all of them big enough for the adults. When mine bread the babies hid in cracks too small for the adults until they were big enough to compete with them. Make sure they are far enough away from the glass on the display sides that you can get a magnet or other cleaner inside. Do not mess with it! Resist the urge to clean the rocks and shift them around to clean under and between them. Love the algae too because you defeat the purpose if you shift the rocks around to clean things up.
I moved ahead of my family, about 860 miles away, and they stayed behind for a year. The tank was in my man cave and my wife and sons rarely checked it. I had everything on a ground fault so it would not burn the house down if something failed while I was gone. Thunder storms would trip it and everything would shut down. They would forget to check it until I reminded them. It was not uncommon for the water level fell eight to ten inches. I would come home after two or three months and it was obvious they had not even fed them. I had two filters on it, a HOT with a bio wheel and carbon that after that long was nothing more than biological. That finally died because it would lose prime from water evaporating and grind dry for God knows how long. I had an under gravel filter on a 1200 gpm pump and I sealed the upright so it usually would not lose prime and at times I came home and it was high and dry but still pumping. In any case I had more fish at the end of the year than I did when I left. I can only imagine if I had been there and only given them just enough attention! They were a great community.


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## rtmaston (Jul 14, 2012)

I agree to many fish for the size of tank.


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## dalfed (Apr 8, 2012)

Chevyman said:


> what would be the max amount in a 55 gal?


Do you want breeding sets? all male?


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## Rod4Rodger (Jan 2, 2012)

rtmaston said:


> I agree to many fish for the size of tank.


Probably correct but in my experience with Chilicds hiding places were more important. My daughter had more than that in her 29 for years. Water changes, good filters, and hiding places. (Yea, I know good filters and water changes are contrary to my previous post where my neglected 110 breed to excess. There were probably twenty in it to start with and about thirty at the end. Many of the older ones died but the babies took up the slack.)


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## dalfed (Apr 8, 2012)

Rod4Rodger said:


> Probably correct but in my experience with Chilicds hiding places were more important. My daughter had more than that in her 29 for years. Water changes, good filters, and hiding places. (Yea, I know good filters and water changes are contrary to my previous post where my neglected 110 breed to excess. There were probably twenty in it to start with and about thirty at the end. Many of the older ones died but the babies took up the slack.)


I agree that hiding places are most important but a 29 is too small to keep Mbuna especially with some of the chunkier ones.


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