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Ok. I have a 30 gallon long tank with 1 male and 1 female mbuna. Everything had been going fine until my male started getting extremely aggresive. Hes constantly harrasing my female and shes covered in cuts and scrapes. I've even noticed him biting at her eyes! So im wondering what I could do to lower aggresion betwenn the two. Any help would be appreciated!

Can you be a bit more specific on which mbuna species you have? There are many.
At a guess I would say more females are required to take the pressure off the one you have. Since we dont know what species you have we cant help much further until you get back to us.

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Before you criticize someone walk a mile in their shoes. That way you're a mile away and you have their shoes.

quickest sollution, drop in a divider to break them up. future sollution you need 8 or so fish in the tank so targets get lost. MBuna are not pair fish they live is large groups. they arnt really schools but there are thousands of fish in a small amoutn of area.

mbuna fight for alot of reasons. dominant fish get the best food - mates - and most area. 30g is really to small for mbuna they really need a 4ft tank. keep it a single species and add alot of clay pots cut in half to create a ton of hiding spots.

better information can be given knowing which species. some species like demasoni will not work at all ever in that tank. they need 20+ fish of the same species to have any hope.

cichlids are temperamental and territorial, they probably need their own space. if you were trying to breed them then i'd say get a harem of females for the male, but even so they need a bigger tank. Best option is divide them and create two small smaller homes out of the tank you have.

also, not to be the spelling police but, its spelled * Desperate *

\\\\\\\"an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of the cure\\\\\\\"

OK.... I do have alot of hiding spots and the male has made more himseld (as in, digging holes underneath stuff) as to what species, I have no clue. My LFS had them marked by the term "assorted mbuna". They told me they wont get bigger then 6" though. I really dont want to be foreced to put the divider in because ill have to uproot my plants. So you think I should get more females?

can you post pics or describe the fish? colors? stripes?

in any case as it stand what you have wont work. you need more fish. mbuna have this thing about killing each other so you need allot so they lose targets in the mix.

if you dont / cant post a picture- could you go threw the profiles and see if you can ID....

Also a description would greatly help.

For the mean time, please put in a divider.

I'd rather lose a couple of $'s worth of plants to save my fish. If you get more females you need to be looking at getting a larger tank for them in the very near future. At present there isnt enough space for them to have territories.
Search through the profiles, http://fishprofiles.com/profiles/freshwater/Cichlids/ see if yours are there. Go check in the lfs if they still have those mbuna there and ask them what they are. A good lfs will know.

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Before you criticize someone walk a mile in their shoes. That way you're a mile away and you have their shoes.

The female maybe.... Labeotropheus trewavasae i think.

and the male is Pseudotropheus lombardoi i beleive

not sure about the female though.... she's darker then the ne in the picture, as in saying a dark blue but her body is identical to the picture and she isnt aggresive like the profile says.

Someone should go to that LFS -- Local Fish Store -- and smack that employee in the head. Shame on him/her for selling you one male and one female like that. The general ratio for a lot of cichlids -- particularly African cichlids -- is to have at least four females per male. As others here have stated, it helps to disperse the male's natural aggression.

Be warned though, that if tank conditions are right, that is in essence a baby factory. You don't have to do anything. Just sit back and watch! My oldest female mbuna spawned for the 11th time yesterday.