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Just a testement to the fact that you can never truely guarantee behavior, even with one the most reputably peaceful rift lake species... one of my smaller male Labs went beserk and almost killed my larger alpha male. I witnessed some chasing a few days ago and some nipped fins, but as I've seen my cichlids display heightened levels of aggression at times (like during spawning...my Alpha male would chase the other two males) which subsequently would ease up after a day or so, I figured it would be ok and things would settle down.

Well, last night I found my beautiful alpha Lab cowering near the bottom of the tank, and still getting harassed by the smaller male. I immediately brought up my unused 12G eclipse tank and moved my alpha male so he could recover from his trauma. As of this morning he is more perky and actively swimming around. Last night he was very timid and not eating. I'm hoping he will take food today.

This is a 75G with 10 Labs and 7 Acei. The Labs are just over a year and half old now.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do. I'll probably take the aggressor to my LFS and see if I can get a trade... either for a female Lab, an Acei, or maybe another BN. Sucks because I've had them for so long and I feel bad that I might have to get rid of one.

Just goes to show you that even Labs can be very aggressive fish when they want to be!

this is bound to happen its just how it is with multiple males in one tank. you have a leader for a set amount of time till a younger stronger one comes along and knocks him down a few steps on the ladder. prolly the sure way to keep it in check is only have one male but that gets old after a while. same male allways running the show. i owuld just make sure there is plenty of rock work for hiding when these lead changes accure. as the males get older leadership will be fought over more often and leaders will flip flop constently.

i had a female lab that ruled the tank...until the kenyi grew up!

This is a Labidochromis I take it, a supposedly 'peaceful' fish?

Wow. Got pictures of these?

Shall I update the Mbuna Helful Hints to this effect so that your experience stays pinned?


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

Always a reminder that labs are mbunas that can be aggresive. This isn't unheard of either

Well, when I put 'peaceful' above, I meant it in a relative sense, because we are dealing with Cichlids after all, not Corydoras

However, the norm for Labidochromis is for them to be considerably less given to violence than the likes of Pseudotropheus elongatus, which is a complete reprobate. But I keep telling people that fish sometimes don't read the textbooks, and this is a case in point!

Quick question: was this aggressive Labidochromis picking on just the one other fish, or was it turning savage indiscriminately? Only the latter suggests the onset of hyperdominance, which has never been documented in Labidochromis before to my knowledge. And would be a first for FishProfiles if we were to document it!


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

The Lab in question has a problem with the other male Labs, except for one male who has a more pale coloration than the rest. I have seem him try to take a nip or two at the Acei, but it's usually half-hearted, and not nearly like the beating my poor alpha (well, formerly alpha I suppose) male.

A brief update on my injured Lab. He's been recovering in my 12G hospital tank since the day I wrote the first post. His fins have repaired themselves for the most part, so I will contemplate moving him back into the main tank in the next couple of days.

Another update. I put my formerly injured-now healed Alpha male back into the main tank. Almost immediately, he started back up with the aggressive Lab. Both were engaged in a battle, and neither would give up. Once they started locking their mouths around the other I removed the hyper-aggresive Lab and took him to my LFS for store credit.