I have three tanks with fish in. One large tank with cichlids and a smaller on with just on Malawi who does not want to integrate, and finally I have another smaller tank with small fish in it.
So, on Tuesday I bought a lovely orange cichlid that was going to be a tank mate for the Malawi, but he did nothing but chase her constantly. As I wanted her to thrive I put her in the communal big tank. She seemed okay at first, but then a few of the other fish chased her, but it settled down, well, for a bit until the Parrot fish and her BFF a yellow Lab decided to go after her. Now, she was not tiny, and only a little bit smaller than most of the tank. There are fish in there that are the same size as she was, so that should not be a problem, and I have not had problems introducing others to the tanks in the past. But, this was not to be, as I discovered on Wednesday evening. The Parrot slammed her on the side which caused instant swim bladder problems. I moved quick and put here in an isolation pod in the tank, but knew she would not make it as I have seen this in the past. Thursday early hours she died, and was buried in the garden with the other animals from our 20 years here. It was a shame as she was very pretty. I have decided that I will not be getting any more for the two cichlid tanks unless the fish are large and I know they can handle themselves.
Mr Knitter 
I am sorry to hear about all of this… I didn’t realize that fish could be such bullies! (felt weird with my like…is it proper to like a post like this?)
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I know what you mean about the like button, but yes it is okay to like a post that can be sad. To me it is like someone saying “I read your post”. Yes African Cichlids can be very aggressive, if you have a community tank that is over stocked then there tends not to be any fighting as there is too much going on, but I don’t like to overstock tanks as it does not let the fish grow to their full potential. My stock is mixed, so not just cichlids, I also have in the large tank a large bala shark, 2 synodontis, pair of kissing gouramis, bristle nose cat fish, 2 giraffe cichlids, yellow lab, parrot fish and a blue dolphin cichlid (Malawi).
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wow… very jealous. I had a very small tank many years ago… maybe I should get back into it?
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I have three tanks, of which one is large and the other two are small. I enjoy keeping fish, but I am tempted to start a marine tank.
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