nanny Posted April 10, 2013 Share Posted April 10, 2013 My tank is about eighteen months old and everyone within has been getting on beautifully. I have a Malawi dolphin (the leader of the pack) who has suddenly started very aggressively forcing the Dragonblood (2IC) into a corner. Every time he came out he was forced back so he has just been sitting on the bottom in a corner for about three days now. Will the boss get over whatever transgression he thinks the 2IC has made and let him back out or is there something i need to do to help? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DFishkeeper Posted April 10, 2013 Share Posted April 10, 2013 I wouldn't worry too much, blue dolphins only think they can fight, they're all bluff. Try rearranging the tank structure.Cheers, Doug Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
firthy13 Posted April 10, 2013 Share Posted April 10, 2013 also what size tank is it? but yeah this is normal behaviour. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
malawi sand diver Posted April 10, 2013 Share Posted April 10, 2013 Blue dolphins can get pretty big and once they get to a certain size, they think all of the tank's space is their territory. Only 2 solutions I can think of:- get a bigger tank- get a fish that will be dominant over the dolphin but not as agressive, or add in other tank mates to disperse the agression. You might need to upgrade the filtration though, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hahalalanana Posted November 30, 2015 Share Posted November 30, 2015 I know this is an old conversation however, I'm having the same problem with my dolphin. When we first set up the tank we had a beautiful compilation of African cichlids, one in particular (the dolphin e.g. Cloud) was one of my favourites. Unfortunately Cloud jumped out of the tank in the middle of the night after about 5 months into the original tank set up. We replaced him with another blue dolphin (e.g. Stormy) and geeeeez, does he live up to his name. When Stormy was introduced he was half the size of the biggest fish in the tank yet clearly aggressive and over dominant. Way to big for his boots from the very start. Stormy quickly grew to the same size as the larger fish being a polystigma, venustus, blue electric and red zebra. It is now 2 years in and he's just gotten worse and worse. I can even hear the fish trying to escape his snaps in the middle of the night and the tank is down the hall in the living room! During the day our large fish are are either hiding in the corners or in one of the free caves. The other day the polystigma stopped eating for a day and was really badly smashed up on his dorsal fin (to the point where the first 3 ribs of the fin were completely gone). The graze on his head was down to the pink fleshy bit. The worst damage I've ever seen on him. Now my blue electric has stopped coming up to feed (when normally I fed by hand) and will only take food if it falls by his face. He stays in the same spot ALL day. These other large fish I mentioned have lovely personalities and it's hard to see them so lifeless. I've been watching them extremely closely over the last few weeks and it seems Stormy will rest when the light goes off and the others will venture out for a swim, then and only then. The rest of the time they are in the corners, or completely dormant on the floor, or in a cave. We are at our wits end. As a last resort we are going to take him to the fish shop to hopefully bring some harmony back to the tank. So far we have tried changing around the logs and rocks to no avail. The behaviour stops for a day, then it's right back to where we were with him Any suggestions? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
5uka Posted November 30, 2015 Share Posted November 30, 2015 Yes the suggestion is dont be scared to get rid of stormy. Either place him in another tank or move him on. Makes no sense to keep him if he is destroying your tank.You could remove him for a few weeks then reintroduce him. If that does not work move him on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
malawi sand diver Posted December 1, 2015 Share Posted December 1, 2015 Removing Stormy is one option, adding a more dominant tank mate is another alternative if you want to keep him. The more dominant tankmate would keep him lower in the pecking order and a new boss might get on better with your other fish.There are not too many fish I can think of that would boss around a dominant dolphin. In fact the tankmates you have are all boisterous fish that can stand up for themselves in terms of Malawi species.If there is one of your tank mates I would choose to step up and show the dolphin who's boss it would be the venustus. Maybe adding a female venustus might do the job? Over time he will grow larger than the dolphin.The other option is to add a new boss, something large such as metriclima pulpicans, cynotilapia sp. hara, Nimbochromis Fuscotaeniatus.things like fossorochromis rostratus and dimidiochromis strigatus get agressive when there is a female or two in there and would fight back against the dolphin.I guess its a case of experimentation, good luck with he tank dynamics! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ziggyboy Posted December 1, 2015 Share Posted December 1, 2015 If he's a relentless bully then I would remove him from the tank. I've removed an Auratus in the past. Now after 2 years of running my tank I've noticed various fish take dominance. My dolphins used to be mellow and got bullied quite a bit, now one of them has stood up to one of my more dominant fish (some white Mbuna--need to ID him). So far I've got about 4 dominant fish in my tank and they sort of switch between being dominant each week, so what someone else posted might work. Introduce another dominant fish.It's been "survival of the fiercest" in my tank so far. I've had a few deaths that I'd attribute to aggression. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hahalalanana Posted December 4, 2015 Share Posted December 4, 2015 Yes the suggestion is dont be scared to get rid of stormy. Either place him in another tank or move him on. Makes no sense to keep him if he is destroying your tank.You could remove him for a few weeks then reintroduce him. If that does not work move him on.If only I had a spare tank. That possibly could have done the trick. I appreciate the feedback. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hahalalanana Posted December 4, 2015 Share Posted December 4, 2015 Removing Stormy is one option, adding a more dominant tank mate is another alternative if you want to keep him. The more dominant tankmate would keep him lower in the pecking order and a new boss might get on better with your other fish.There are not too many fish I can think of that would boss around a dominant dolphin. In fact the tankmates you have are all boisterous fish that can stand up for themselves in terms of Malawi species.If there is one of your tank mates I would choose to step up and show the dolphin who's boss it would be the venustus. Maybe adding a female venustus might do the job? Over time he will grow larger than the dolphin.The other option is to add a new boss, something large such as metriclima pulpicans, cynotilapia sp. hara, Nimbochromis Fuscotaeniatus.things like fossorochromis rostratus and dimidiochromis strigatus get agressive when there is a female or two in there and would fight back against the dolphin.I guess its a case of experimentation, good luck with he tank dynamics!It's funny you say that. The venustus we have is a female and Stormy dominates her as well. Right now she is on her 3rd batch of fry - guess whose the daddy, yep - Stormy. On her side there is a big open wound (down to the fleshy bit) and some days he chases her relentlessly. I thought it was just because they were breeding. Even if it is, I'm worried he's going to kill her.I think you're right about the experimentation. I'm going to have a better look into the types of fish you mentioned. Thank you for the feed back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hahalalanana Posted December 4, 2015 Share Posted December 4, 2015 If he's a relentless bully then I would remove him from the tank. I've removed an Auratus in the past. Now after 2 years of running my tank I've noticed various fish take dominance. My dolphins used to be mellow and got bullied quite a bit, now one of them has stood up to one of my more dominant fish (some white Mbuna--need to ID him). So far I've got about 4 dominant fish in my tank and they sort of switch between being dominant each week, so what someone else posted might work. Introduce another dominant fish.It's been "survival of the fiercest" in my tank so far. I've had a few deaths that I'd attribute to aggression.It saddens me to say, but I got rid of him. I couldn't risk the stress of the other fish. I'm moving interstate in less than a week. I decided the other fish need to be as calm and as healthy as possible before the big trip. And what a difference it has made! They are all back to their happy selves. It's meant a lot to me getting support from you and the other cichlid members. I'm a bit soft when comes to getting rid of fish and have found it it very stressful when it comes to the crunch. When the tank was first set up, I had to get rid of a Mbuna too. It was even worse than Stormy. I'd love to get another one. They are extremely beautiful to watch and have a really quirky personality. Right now, I can see various bosses emerging and I hope like your situation, they take turns and live in harmony. I really appreciate the feedback. I'm stoked to have other cichlid fans to talk to about these issues. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
z18turbo Posted December 4, 2015 Share Posted December 4, 2015 I have only ever had one wild caught dolphin in my display and it was the most aggressive fish I have kept. Although it often came off second best with the other large haps it would still go back for more. Amazing looking fish but had to move it on. I now have a 8x3x2 display with mixed haps/peacocks and have a fully mature rostratus and borleyi. Neither is aggressive but there size alone keeps the peace. I get lots of squabbles but as soon as one of these swim by they stop. I also have rock stacks that are to the waters surface that break up line of sight. My only issue is when I have added young fish out of my grow out my semi mature exochromis goes bananas chasing and displaying for a day or so but he then calms down.Cheers,Jarrod Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjoconr Posted December 6, 2015 Share Posted December 6, 2015 My Dolphin did the same thing after about 6 months. He killed on Venustus male and was not far from kill another. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.