I have a 30G fish tank with 3 cichilid, and a Pleco.

Question

My Cichilids are all about 2.5 to 3 inches long, and my pleco has grown to a whoping 6 inches long (he was about 1 inch when I got him). One of the Cichilid I have thinks he is King of the tank. He has a little cave he hides in and he always clears out all the gravel from inside his cave. The other two cichilids have places to hide, but don't use them much.

The problem I have is that the king Cichilid always picks on the other two Cichilid and the pleco too. He has almost killed one of the other two Cichilid, and the pleco's fins are pretty well torn up.

I feed my fish 2 times per day, and feed them enough that they don't always eat it all, and I clean that up later. I feed them a variety of food (Cichilid sticks, tropical flakes, and another high protein food). The pleco of course gets algea chips.

I know that Cichilids are known to be agressive, and that is why I don't have any other fish (except the pleco) in the tank with them. My question is can I get this fish that thinks he is king to quit picking on the others? If it is possable how do I do it?

Please no smart *** answers like "Just flush him!"

Answer 1

To answer your question in short you have way too many fish for that small tank. Fish like childs fight. More so if you have them in a 30 gallon tank when a 75 plus is clearly called for. Differnt types of childs are more aggressive than others, one will always be the boss fish in a tank though. Try moving around their décor every couple of weeks to make them less teritorial and or buy partner childs that are twice the size or just as aggresive as the boss fish. More décor and bigger tank Is the best chance you got with the fish you have. You could always just flush them ! :)    Just kidding.   Good luck !!      

Answer 2

I had the same problem.  Only some cichilids can live with one another while other become very territorial and aggressive.  Its got nothing to do with the food or being hungry but more about animal instincts and wanting to be the only fish in the tank.  Your better off returning the fish to the store and building a tank with compatible fish.

Good Luck

Answer 3

What kind of Cichlids are they? Are they all the same kind?

Electric Yellow labs are supposed to be the most peaceful kind of all, (but still too aggressive for a community tank).

I have read a long time ago when i was researching about Cichlids, that Cichlids should only be with Cichlids of its own kind and nothing more. It's ok to mix cichlids when they are still small like less than 2".

Your pleco is in a bit of danger, but good that your pleco is big and armored, but I would not put them together. It takes up so much space, and it's a bit territorial too, it's not a very good combination with very territorial cichlids.

You really can't alter the nature of cichlids.

Things that you can do are adding more hiding places, such as rocks, caves, driftwood and try to mimic their African environment. This way, they will feel more secure, and your King might calm down.

I don't suggest plants because larger cichlids would dig up the gravel and waste your plants.

They are very territorial, so make sure they have enough space. But you should be fine right now in terms of space. A trick that a LFS staff told me before is to re-arrange everything in your aquaium. This will BREAK their settled territories. So it's like starting over again.

So hopefully, after adding more stuff and "starting over again", your king will settle on a new isolated piece of territory that won't affect his tank mates.

:) Good luck!

Answer 4

You might want to try to add some more cchlids in the tank. In a 30 gallon tank you can easily put 30 fish in there without being in trouble. Although its really senseless to have that many fish at a time, you should add at least 3-6 more cichlids of the same species but try to get different colors. This will take some of the aggressiveness away from the king.

Answer 5

I had same problem. Guy at LFS said to add more ciclids(over stock) to spread the aggression around. I now have 10 (African, different colors, same species) in a 30gal and there is no one fish receiving all the aggression. They don't bother my clown pleco which is only 2 in. long.  I plan on moving them to a 50 gal soon.**

When I had only 3 two of them pick on the third till it's tail was almost gone. I separated it till it got better then add her back with a bunch of others now every thing is fine. I do frequent water changes.

Add more females.

Answer 6

I use to have the same problem..the agressive on actually killed my pleco...u cant really do nothing but get rid of him or take him out of the tank for a day or two.