mbuna were bad this morning

-------------
tank - 50 gal, well rocked
fish - 20 2 year old 'kenyii' all from a homemade fry batch ( gave parents
away ), about 2-3 inches + a pleco + 1 small hap-something
diet - recently adding fresh spinich to the mix of spirilia flakes and
pellets ( light meals 2 x day)
-------------

I know that these fish can tend to be aggressive and nasty to each other
but...

when I glanced at my tank this morning, I noticed the fish behaving
strangely...
then I saw what was happening, one of the average sized (bright-yellow)
males was being tag-teamed brutally by almost all the other fish. chased and
pecked.

he then shot straight up out of the water and hit the cover ( thud! ) then
sank back to the bottom and rested upside-down, ( his belly was white as a
ghost )
then the other fish noticed me, or were startled by the thud, and they all
guiltily-looking immedialtly hid in the rocks, just peaking out looking at
me.
( they all hid except for the hap, I guess he wasn't in on it )

tonight, I reconized the victim of this 'swarming' and he seems very timid
now, but no real damage except for a bit of shimy-ing ( on the spot
swimming )
( he did not join in on the nightly feeding either )

this is the first time I've seen such a display, but I suspect it happens
other times while I'm not a witness...

anyone have any experiences simular to this, or a psuedo-explaination
(pun-intended) for this behaviour?

Carl

Welcome to Cichlids.. Certainly this is normal behaviour as far as I am
concerned.. You have very territorial Cichlids.. They will kill of the
weakest one by one.. Till of course you are left with the hyper dominant
male, who will kill off anything non female and harrass the females
constantly to breed..


Regards...
"carl" wrote in message
. ..
-------------
tank - 50 gal, well rocked
fish - 20 2 year old 'kenyii' all from a homemade fry batch ( gave parents
away ), about 2-3 inches + a pleco + 1 small hap-something
diet - recently adding fresh spinich to the mix of spirilia flakes and
pellets ( light meals 2 x day)
-------------

I know that these fish can tend to be aggressive and nasty to each other
but...

when I glanced at my tank this morning, I noticed the fish behaving
strangely...
then I saw what was happening, one of the average sized (bright-yellow)
males was being tag-teamed brutally by almost all the other fish. chased
and
pecked.

he then shot straight up out of the water and hit the cover ( thud! ) then
sank back to the bottom and rested upside-down, ( his belly was white as a
ghost )
then the other fish noticed me, or were startled by the thud, and they all
guiltily-looking immedialtly hid in the rocks, just peaking out looking at
me.
( they all hid except for the hap, I guess he wasn't in on it )

tonight, I reconized the victim of this 'swarming' and he seems very timid
now, but no real damage except for a bit of shimy-ing ( on the spot
swimming )
( he did not join in on the nightly feeding either )

this is the first time I've seen such a display, but I suspect it happens
other times while I'm not a witness...

anyone have any experiences simular to this, or a psuedo-explaination
(pun-intended) for this behaviour?

Carl

carl wrote:
-------------
tank - 50 gal, well rocked
fish - 20 2 year old 'kenyii' all from a homemade fry batch ( gave parents
away ), about 2-3 inches + a pleco + 1 small hap-something
diet - recently adding fresh spinich to the mix of spirilia flakes and
pellets ( light meals 2 x day)
-------------

I know that these fish can tend to be aggressive and nasty to each other
but...

when I glanced at my tank this morning, I noticed the fish behaving
strangely...
then I saw what was happening, one of the average sized (bright-yellow)
males was being tag-teamed brutally by almost all the other fish. chased and
pecked.

he then shot straight up out of the water and hit the cover ( thud! ) then
sank back to the bottom and rested upside-down, ( his belly was white as a
ghost )
then the other fish noticed me, or were startled by the thud, and they all
guiltily-looking immedialtly hid in the rocks, just peaking out looking at
me.
( they all hid except for the hap, I guess he wasn't in on it )

tonight, I reconized the victim of this 'swarming' and he seems very timid
now, but no real damage except for a bit of shimy-ing ( on the spot
swimming )
( he did not join in on the nightly feeding either )

this is the first time I've seen such a display, but I suspect it happens
other times while I'm not a witness...

anyone have any experiences simular to this, or a psuedo-explaination
(pun-intended) for this behaviour?

Carl

I've seen it with Tanganyikans. It's pretty typical cichlid aggression.
I usually rearranged the rockwork with a big gravel vac and 50% water
change and then turned out the lights for 24 hours. This would confuse
(and slightly stress) all the fish and the chased fish would usually
stake out some new turf.

--
__ Elaine T __
__' http://eethomp.com/fish.html '__

My guess is that the victim fish is sick. Whatever the reason, when other
Cichlids believe a fish is sick they start attacking it. I don't know why,
but that's been my experience. Unless he "cures" himself, he might be dying
shortly, either from his own illness or from the constant aggression of the
others. What leads me to believe this is that a lot of fish were all going
after just this one. That's what makes me think there is weakness/sickness
involved rather than simple aggression. Maybe someone with expertise and
experience will jump in here and correct me if I'm wrong. My opinion comes
from keeping Cichlids for only about 3 years. However, in that time I have
had only three die. Each time, after they started to show some signs of
sickness, the other fish attacked relentlessly. My guess is that other fish
can see any illness/sickness long before us humans can.

-Frank

"carl" wrote in message
. ..
-------------
tank - 50 gal, well rocked
fish - 20 2 year old 'kenyii' all from a homemade fry batch ( gave parents
away ), about 2-3 inches + a pleco + 1 small hap-something
diet - recently adding fresh spinich to the mix of spirilia flakes and
pellets ( light meals 2 x day)
-------------

I know that these fish can tend to be aggressive and nasty to each other
but...

when I glanced at my tank this morning, I noticed the fish behaving
strangely...
then I saw what was happening, one of the average sized (bright-yellow)
males was being tag-teamed brutally by almost all the other fish. chased
and
pecked.

he then shot straight up out of the water and hit the cover ( thud! ) then
sank back to the bottom and rested upside-down, ( his belly was white as a
ghost )
then the other fish noticed me, or were startled by the thud, and they all
guiltily-looking immedialtly hid in the rocks, just peaking out looking at
me.
( they all hid except for the hap, I guess he wasn't in on it )

tonight, I reconized the victim of this 'swarming' and he seems very timid
now, but no real damage except for a bit of shimy-ing ( on the spot
swimming )
( he did not join in on the nightly feeding either )

this is the first time I've seen such a display, but I suspect it happens
other times while I'm not a witness...

anyone have any experiences simular to this, or a psuedo-explaination
(pun-intended) for this behaviour?

Carl