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Hey folks,

I recently noticed some odd behaviour in my 29 gallon, species only, electric yellow tank. There are cuurently 9 fish in there, 7 of them are the offsrping of the other two. The colony seemed to be getting along pretty well as the fry have now begun to get larger. I noticed "dad" acting strangley. He was hanging out behind the filter output almost swimming on his side. Also I've seen "mom" sort of standing straight up by the filter intake. Head up in the air, tail at the bottom When I fed them they immediately began swimming correctly. Is it time to move out the "kids"? Are they feeling cramped? Two of the fry are quite small, but the other five are almost as big as "mom" now. Water is good, tank has been set up for almost two years.

sounds way overstocked to me

When I had africans my females would do the same when they were carrying eggs.

James

9 fish in there

The fish is cowering in a place where he feels that he can temporary hide from getting bullied. A probable outcome will be that he we eventually get terminally ill or diseased from the stress and you will lose him. That is way too many fish for that small of tank. I would say four would max at best. If you have not yet experienced any deaths you probably will. I would moved that stress fish soon. Can you sell or trade of the offspring?

I am also thinking of overcrowding & maybe bullying.


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listen to them dude,i would get rid of all the kids and just keep mum n dad,if you get rid off the kids,mum n dad,will probly return to there normal self,and when this happens they will probly have sum more fry fealing relaxed again.i had hybrid fry,that started bulling the parents,(untill i fed them to my oscars,just to mean)

Last edited by hokese at 15-Dec-2005 04:36

also, cichlids should kept in no smaller than 55 gal.

James

A 55G is not necissary for this species at proper stocking levels.

Remove the fry and all should hopefully be well.

Definately overstocked.....DO NOT remove the fry and leave a pair or you'll be stuck with 1 male in the long run...

Try to seperate out 2-3 females, leaving the stock level at 1m, 3-4f. 5 fish MAX...

How's the set up? lots of rocks? plants to reach up into the upper levels?

That's what I figured. I'll see if a can trade in 5 of the big kids to a LFS.

It was a very sad day the other day as I traded the "teenagers" in. After rasing these guys since they were fry it was really hard to let them go. But it was the right thing to do. The LFS complimented me on the great coloring of the teenagers and they eagerly bought them from me.

I rearraged the tank and it seems that Mom & Dad are getting back to normal. There's still two little ones in there and hopefully I'll have more fry soon.

Goodluck with your Yellow Labs. & hopefully you'll have more fry to sell soon.



http://uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/s8xi5heh/my_photos
http://www.geocities.com/s8xi5heh/classic_blue.html
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/buzaqq/
http://www.deathbydyeing.org/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/corydoras/
Member of the Malta Aquarist Society - 1970.
http://www.maltaaquarist.com