Cichlids behaviour

[CS_sg]

I guess this forum has rooms for newbies as crazy as 'professional' hobbyists.

My yellow lab and neo-brevis like to swim under the fast flowing 'current' that flows from the hang over cannister filter.

Sometimes, they swim up and down rapidly close to the side of the tank for at least 10mins very frequently. This happens throughout the day when I was watching them from a distance.

Anyone knows why are they behaving this way?

Does it indicate anything 'bad' coming its way? Thats what I'm more concerned about.

Not much fighting/fin snipping so far.

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Tank - 29g - 2months since setup
1 Yellow Lab ( 3")
1 Neolamprologus brevis (3")
2 Lemon Cichlid (2.5")
Substrate - Fine crushed coral. 4 palm size shells as 'caves'

 

[Purple]

Hi CS - welcome to the tank......

A lot of fish like to swim into the filter flow - it seems to be the fishy equivelant of a hamster wheel. Swimming up and down he glass is normal if the fish is hungry, but they'll only do that when they know you're watching - it's their way of "begging" for food.

Fish often like somewhere to park up where they don't feel threatened - eg in the middle of a clump of plants etc - and if there is no 'cover' in the tank, then rather than stay still, they'll act nervously and always keep moving. Caves are a good idea - but they need cover they can swim around and through as well. Doesn't have to be live plants, plastic ones are fine.

Do you have plants in your tank - (and are you doing water changes) ?

 

[CS_sg]

Thanks Purple!

I don't any plants (real/plastics) in the tank. I tried to limit to just crushed corals and shells.
Just few palm sized shells stacked together, made 4 'caves' out of them for them to hide 'if necessary'.

Looking for some good sized rocks to make more caves.

I did my water change (20%) yesterday. Could this be the reason why they are behaving nervously?

 

[Purple]

No - I was more concerned that if you were not doing your water changes this might be the result.

If you can get some plants in there for cover you should find they'll settle down more. Caves are good, certainly put more in, but plants mean they can also come out into the main tank without feeling totally exposed. Gives them a chance to see what's going on without getting so nervous.

 

[CS_sg]

By the way, I fed the fish twice a day, (afraid of bloating them from the micro pellets as they always seemed hungry )

I give them about 1/8 teaspoon each them, and they gobbled everything in less than a minute. I thought it was just enough to fill them up and not to cloud the water too.

How often do you feed your cichlids less than 3" in size?

 

[Purple]

How often is relative to how much. Personally it's once a day, and as much as they can eat. Smaller fish such as fry need feeding more often, and a lot of people advocate twice a day regardles of size - but it depends on your tank set-up. My tanks have bottom feeders in them, so i don't mind some food on the bottom for them to clear up, and by leaving them for the rest of the day i find the bottom feeders will keep the place cleaner as they will hunt for food rather than just sit there with their mouths open waiting for the food to fall in. - But like I said - it depends on your set-up.

Just remember that more fish die from over feeding than from under feeding, so less is better then too much.

 

[CS_sg]

I don't have bottom feeder in the tank and the reason why I'm a little less on the feeding.
Reading from the other threads about 'Malawi bloats' and cloudy water just freak me out.

I just 'popped' one fresh plant in from my other planted tank 5mins ago. :O

Just watching if their behaviour change...

 

[TaffyFish]

I have a few thoughts on why fish might do that.

1. they are hungry and think the greatest flow of water would represent the most likely avenue for food into the tank

2. the flow might contain water richer in oxygen

3. the fish might be unsettled in the tank and are looking for avenues to escape - they might instinctively be seeking the main source of current as a possible way out. Are your leleupi a pair - are they tough on the yellow lab and brevis?

4. just because they like it - especially when there's nothing on the TV.

Without any further info, my money's on 3

 

[CS_sg]

The 2 lemon cichlids seemed to ignore the rest of the inhabitants. Just the lemon and brevis seemed to 'play' with the current alot.

No.3 seemed possible. They did look like they were nervously looking for a way out of the tank by swimming up and down that glass wall rapidly.

Like the mice running in the threadmill which Purple mentioned. 'Fish race?' vs rat-race

 

[phOOey]

whenever i add a new fish to my tank it spends its first 2 or 3 days in the tank just swimming up against the current from my ugf, i guess in my case its just nerves because once the settle they never do it again, except the harlies, but im pretty sure they do it for the thrills .

 

[CS_sg]

Today, my yellow lab and neo-brevis may just liked the current. I've noticed that they seemed like the current more than being nervous now. So, Taffy's 2,3 are possible.
Watching them is definitely more interesting than the TV.

 

[steakaphagus]

Have seen this behaviour in glassfish, neons, guppies, Rams - all sorts. They also dive into the flow of a new water change.
I agree with all of Taffy's ideas, but think the most likely number 1 - I've not seen them doing this after feeding time(??)
Or, they could be trying out the 'Nemo' thing - watch for any escape attempts!

 

[CS_sg]

Yes, now you can add to your list that my cichlids do that as well.

Update on the fishies.
They are still doing the 'ecaping' attempts and now its amuses me more than 'worries' me *SUPERSMIL

Been monitoring them and the good thing is they dun do much chasing games or snip at each other like other aggressive fishes do.

When I increased the food I'm feeding them now, it seemed that they still appear very 'excited' and swim near the surface of the water, waiting for more..... but I'll take Purple's advice that less is more, and 'safer' than to bloat them.