Tropical Fish Forum
Tropical Fish Keeping Help and Advice => The Emergency Room => Topic started by: Arniemar on January 15, 2014, 12:50:44 PM
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I bought two jewell cichlids for my community tank, having read up on them and believing they would be a decent addition. But while my stockist advised that they can be territorial and aggressive he didn't tell me they would eat smaller fish! They've now wiped out about ten of my cardinal tetras (which I bought at the same time incidentally - no warning about that) which have disappeared without trace and presumably been eaten. As if that's not bad enough they're also taking chunks out of the tails of my salt and pepper platys - one is already dead. Are they likely to keep up this behaviour? I'm unsure whether to just remove them or alter the balance of the tank in respect of the fish I already have. The others are an albino shark, three red phantom tetras, a couple of barbs and two bristlenose plecs. So far it appears the remaining fish have been spared these kind of attacks.
Any advice gratefully received.
Stuart
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Unfortunately, jewel cichlids are not recommended with smaller fish, as you have found out. Your other fish are bigger, and also semi aggressive (barbs, red phantoms) which enables them to stand up to the jewels. If you want to keep small fish you'll need to rehome the cichlids, or keep the cichlids and rehome what's left of your smaller fish.
Incidentally, both the barbs and phantoms need to be in bigger groups, they are shoaling fish and there should be at least six of each. If you want to keep the cichlids, maybe replace the cardinals and cories with more barbs and phantoms.
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Thanks. It's plain now i've made a mistake with these fish. Surprisingly, one of the barbs has now been attacked when I thought the remaining bigger fish had been spared. The cichlids are a pair - a male and a female. I suspect the male is the more aggressive. Would it be an idea to just remove one? I'd be reluctant to rehome both.
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If yours are a definite pair (by which I mean they 'like' each other as opposed to just a male and female as some cichlids can be quite picky about mates) then things will get a lot worse if they breed. Even placid cichlids get aggressive when they have eggs and fry.
A quote from seriouslyfish:
A territorial species that becomes incredibly aggressive when spawning. It can be kept with larger Alestiid tetras such as Congo tetras, Synodontis catfish, Loricariids, and in a large enough tank, other African cichlids such as Steatocranus. It is best kept in pairs, although simply purchasing a pair will usually result in the weaker fish being killed. A group of young fish should be purchased and a pair allowed to form from those.
Personally, I wouldn't keep even one with the fish you have.
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Yeah, I think i am going to have to move them on. Frustrating. I may contact the shop to see if they'll take them back. Incidentally do you think I have a case for saying they were effectively mis-sold - therefore potentially getting my money back? They were bought at the same time with platys and cardinal tetras, but I wasn't warned this was an unsuitable combination...
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You could always ask, but the chances are they'll say no.....