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I have a small assortment of African Cichlids in a 29 gallon tank. Should I get more Electric Yellows?

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A few months ago I went to my local fish shop and bought an assortment of small African cichlids. I asked the fish guy in the shop how many would do well in a 29 gallon tank, and he told me five should be alright. I bought an albino, an electric yellow, a red zebra, a dark striped fish, and one that I believe is a cobalt blue. Well, recently I had to give the striped and the blue one away because they grew bigger than the others and became too aggressive. Now I am left with the red zebra, albino and electric yellow. The aggression in my tank has gone down significantly, but I still have a problem with my electric yellow. When I had the other fish, it was my yellow that got picked on the most, and even though the two most aggressive fish are out of the tank now, the electric yellow still often hides at the corner unless it's feeding time. My red zebra and my albino will sometimes chase her a little bit, but it's not nearly as bad and as often as it was with the other two cichlids. I also have a lot of rocks and a piece of drift wood in there for the fish to swim through and hide. I know that the fish I have now will not kill each other as they are all the same size (about 2 inches) and are fairly docile fish compared to the other two I had, but I still feel bad for the electric yellow. Should I buy 2 more electric yellows so that my current electric yellow will have new friends? If you think this is a good idea, should I get 1 male and 1 more female (my current yellow is a female I think) or should I try to get all female electric yellows? I've read that it is good to have 1 male and 2 or more females when keeping electric yellows, but for the size of my tank I'd like to try to keep the aggression as little as possible. I would prefer to have 1 male if it's ok though. Thanks for your help!

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  1. you can overcrowd with Africans. the more fish the more the aggression is divided up. in stead of giving the 2 away you could have added a few more.I have 10 in my 29 gal. only problem you have to keep up on water changes.


  2. personally, I think if you really like Africans, you would be much better off buying a 55 gallon tank. they are agressive and territorial and with a 29 gallon you are going to be stuck in the buy a fish, give it away when it gets picked on cycle.  I had 5 red zebras in a 29 gal once. yes they survived, water changes weekly, several caves and rocks to hide in, but is this the best habitat? NO WAY!  for any africans, it is always better to have 1 male to 3+ females. but how are you going to determine their s*x before you bring them home?

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