Aggression matching... Opinions needed!

[Exevious]

In my 37 gallon.. I currently have 3 Labidochromis caeruleus or Electric Yellows
Here is a link for more info http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/l_caeruleus.php

My question for anyone having experience with them... is how many could be kept in this tank?

I have started with three, and they have matured into 2 males and one female.
I was planning on ending up with 4 females and one male.

Then next question is for opinions which male to pull from the tank...
Should I return the more aggressive male or the lesser aggressive male.

I need to return one and get 2 more babies and hope they are female.


There are no real aggression issues happening.... but one male is definitly the aggressor keeping the other male off to one corner of the tank most of the time.

 

[Orion]

Male to Male aggresion is just a way of life, its going to happen. One is going to rise to be the Alpha male, and keep other males away from 'his' females. The biggest thing IMO to watch out for is a hyperaggresive male that will not leave the females alone. Sometimes it is good to have more than one male in a tank, that way the other male keeps the alpha on his toes, and his aggresion will not turn totaly to the females. Give plenty of hiding spaces, and all should be fine. If the alpha male has not severly hurt or beaten the sub-dominat male, then you should be ok with both in there.

As for how many, I couldn't tell you. They are a mbuna, and generaly people over stock mbuna tanks to help lessen aggression, but yellow labs are much more docile than your typical mbuna. To guess I would say that you may be able to get away with 7-10 or so adult labs in there. anyone else have anything better to add or correct me on this please do so.

 

[Cichlid-Man]

I keep 7 in a 29gal so, might want to judge from that. Of course mine are all fairly small right now.

I'd think it'd be ok to have 2 males in there. As long as no one gets hurt, it will provide quite a show of the natural ways of this fish. Fighting over territory. And like Orion said, the other male is kinda like a dither fish for the other male. The dominant male should still breed with females but he won't spaz out on them and end up killing them.

Oh and i like how you linked a profile for the fish to the post, just incase someone new to cichlids wants to do a quick check on this fish. *thumbsups

 

[Exevious]

Thats interesting... Much of my reading had lead me to believe that 5 might be pushing it.

But if I could keep up to 7,
I would be interested in going with 4 labs... picking out three of another type cichlid.

I had Kenyi for awhile, but they were too hard to sex... I ended up maturing 5 all males.

I would really want the perfect match for the labs... Im not sure what that is yet.