Inherited some fish... need help

[haydenm315]

My wife's friends are moving out of state and left us with a lot of stuff. I got a large tank, but need to build a stand and get it setup. I also inherited 1 medium/large sized african cichlid.

I don't know the species yet. It has vertical stripes. It looks bluish/purple, though it's kinda dull now. It's dorsal fin is edged in white. Some metallic specs on it's face/gills. The face profile is kinda pointy.

I put it in my 40 gallon with a jewel and blue acara cichlid while I figure out what to do. The new cichlid is slightly bigger and maybe quicker than the others. It hasn't displayed aggressive behavior towards the original inhabitants yet. I've seen the jewel and acara chase the new one around. Apparantly the acara hasn't learned from last time when a convict he was picking on ripped his lip up. (Had to move that one out)

I've heard you can't mix lake and river cichlids due to different food/ph requirements. I've also heard they just don't get along. I do recall hearing about some tanks living in harmony. My tank is at 80F and a PH around 7 maybe a little higher. I've been feeding the green hikari cichlid pellets.

[lloyd berg]

post up a pic and i'll try to i.d. the new fish for you. mixing fish can get tricky, and yet for some it's a total non issue, so if you know 'what they are' you are leaps and bounds ahead of potential probs.

[haydenm315]

post up a pic and i'll try to i.d. the new fish for you. mixing fish can get tricky, and yet for some it's a total non issue, so if you know 'what they are' you are leaps and bounds ahead of potential probs.

I'll get a pic up when I get a chance. The tank is acting about the same as when the male convict was introduced.

The jewel either keeps to herself , puts herself in between the newbie and the acara, or brushes and fans with the acara or newbie. The acara aggressively pursues the newbie back and forth up and down through the tank. The convict's fins were wore down pretty good after about a month, while the Acara now has a noticeably battle scarred lower lip.

This newbie is bigger, faster, and sleeker than the acara, but not by a long shot. So far the newbie has been good at not getting nipped or showing aggressive behavior.

My honest opinion is that the acara doesn't like the newbie because it's probably a male and is messing with his woman... errrr fish woman.

[lloyd berg]

it could be territorial. most fish have an instinctive desire to claim space and almost any new fish will need to fight for his when dropped into a tank. i call this situation 'advantage home tream'. and the tank does not need to be crowded. a single angel fish left alone in a 50 for too long will chase away everything/anything that drops in. it's also one of the main reasons why fry are consumed. what appears as 'cannabalism of offspring' may actually be a simple reclaiming of space. fry are not supposed to hang about that long (unlike some teenagers i know) :cool:
you can neutralize the dominance factor by redesigning the tank but the project will be most effective if you remove the fish while doing it. the objective is to make all fish feel lost on re-entry and let them re-resolve their issues of space on a more fair playing field. HTH.

[crazyred]

'cannabalism of offspring' may actually be a simple reclaiming of space. fry are not supposed to hang about that long (unlike some teenagers i know) :cool:

Maybe that;s why some parents of teenagers wish they could get away with eating their young! :LOL

{sorry, couldn't resist :cool: }

[haydenm315]

Here's the acara and new cichlid
http://home.comcast.net/~haydenandtheresa/fish/acaraandcichlid.jpg

Here's a pic of the new fish.


http://home.comcast.net/~haydenandtheresa/fish/newcichlid.jpg