NetMax wrote:
"Gill Passman" wrote in message
.. .

I came down this morning to find a dead Yellow Lab. I instantly thought it
was the tattered beaten up one that I've been trying to catch and isolate
for the past few days....but no...she is still swimming around and keeping
out of trouble. It was a perfectly healthy (until this morning) Lab. It was
pretty badly chewed up.

I have two suspects that are beating on one another so much that they now
both have sores on their mouths...and one of them bit me the other night.
Allegedly, they are Maylandia Lombardoi but from what I can see I'm now
suspecting they are "mutts" - I have 4 of them - 2 are slightly
bluish/white, one is very yellow and the other is a browny yellow. It is
the yellow and the browny yellow that are fighting - they are now 4-5 inch
plus and very fat. From the fry in the tank I'm a little confused about
their origin - deep blue with black vertical stripes - doesn't match
anything else I've got so I'm guessing they are from these fish.

Should I oik both of these fish out of the tank and trade them in as they
will certainly kill one another if not other tank companions? Should I
leave the status quo as if I get rid of these two Mbuna's by their nature
will then fight again and another dominant fish will emerge? Should I pick
one and keep it and get rid of the other one? "Innocent" fish are getting
caught up in their war...



Mbuna tanks sometimes need to be reset, in regards to the choice of
occupants and to thin out the herd. I'd turn down the water temperature for
a while (until you have time to do the reset). About 74F cools their
tempers down. The reset involves removing all the rocks & fish and
re-arranging them before re-introducing the fish (with a few ommisions which
get given away or sold).

Sometimes, I've hit a combination of mbuna and/or other africans which
peacefully added several generations. These ran several years without
intervention, but typical mbuna tanks require tweaking much more often.

ps: Don't neccesarily focus on the alpha male (troublemaker) as a new alpha
male will quickly take his place and might be worse. Use your discretion.
In regards to the odd fish being found dead, this happens. We joke that
they got 'voted' out. It seems like there's a temporary truce called
amongst the usual combatants, and they cooperate to 'remove' the one voted
out, before going back to their usual chinanigans. Really well balanced
mbuna tanks *almost* don't have this.


Thanks for the update. One of the problems is that the two fish in
question are fighting over who is the alpha male and going for anyone
who gets in the way. At the moment it's a bit like "guns at dawn". They
have occuppied one half of the tank each and spend most of their time
posturing and flaring. Occassionally one will encroach on the other ones
half of the tank which results in them locking jaws - both now have
injured mouths. The problem first emerged a few weeks ago when the
non-alpha male mated with one of the females....it has just gone
downhill from there.

The only end I can see to this is that one of them will emerge dominant
either killing or severely injuring the other one. I will try the
breaking down the tank option and see how this pans out - it's better
than doing nothing....one of the fish will have to go back I think...

Thanks again
Gill