cichlid behavior question

seo

Hello all! I've got a problem with a naughty Melanochromis auratus. Well, actually 2 of them. I've got 3 total and 2 are horribly mean to the third. The two larger, meaner ones are male or have at least turned that way. The little guy is still a female but she's getting pretty beaten up. What I don't get is I got all the fish at the same time, along with 6 other cichlids. The Melanochromis auratus don't pick on any of the other fish, but if they catch the smaller Auratus, they'll go after her. Is there anything I can do short of moving her out of the tank? We tried that out of desperation to give her time to heal but she didn't do well- appeared to be very lonely and scared. So we moved all the rocks around and created even more hiding places and added her back in. Now we're back to the same old thing! Any advice?

willow

hi
do they look like this ?

seo

They sure do! I've got 2 of the black ones (male) and the one they're picking on is the yellow stripy one (female?)

Any ideas on how to make them behave?

Daz

You could try more females, that normally is the cause of a lot of Malawi problems. I'm not totally up on them to be fair, but short of taking her back or as I mentioned above your choices are limited.

willow

hi
glad to see i got something right, :D
well,how about take one male back then,and see what happens,
you could always add another female like Daz said.
i think the problem you had there is that the males wanted to mate
with her,and one male on the rampage is bad enough.lol
:)

seo

But why would they pick on her and tear her up if they wanted to mate with her? Wouldn't they duke it out between the two males? I would think they'd leave the female alone if that was the case. I don't know- I guess I could try more females but I am at max tank stock as it is and am on the hunt for a bigger tank so I'd hate to add more fish in to the tank I've currently got.

Wonder why everyone can't just get along in there??? ;)

willow

hi
the thing with cichlids is they can and will be nasty,
and they will carry on attacking the female.
There will i doubt be any change,and the likley hood is
that you little loose the little girl. :(
well if you have no more room,then i would just go with
taking one male back.
Hopefully that will help.
good luck.