Hmmm... This is new

ksrowe8

ksrowe8

Small Fish
#1
Feb 1, 2003
25
0
0
Eagle-Vail, CO
www.myspace.com
#1
After my weekly water change today I decided to clean house a little. I scraped the glass with a razor blade and rearranged all the decor. Now I know that this can sometimes rearrage territories but this is a new one. I have 2 Male Scribble Psuedothopheus and 4 Females. Well I have always had one dominate male that had all the color (blue) while the less domintate (yellow) just kinda blended in w/ the females who are also yellow, maybe a little orange. Well affter the water change the less dom. male decided he wanted to be dom and started locking mouths w/ the Dom. male! This has never happened and I pulled the less dom male and put him in solitary confinment! What should I do... Should I let this resolve itself? *ALL* or will it result in death? I'm kinda at a loss and I really don't have the time to keep this less dom. male in a seperate tank. Anyone run into this or have any suggestions I would be thankful!

Kevin
Vail, CO
 

C

Cichlid-Man

MFT Staff
#2
Jul 9, 2003
8,866
14
38
38
Columbia, SC
www.youtube.com
#2
Personally i'd handle it 1 of 2 ways...or a mix of both really (Rock piles and letting it play out). Being a Pseudotropheus, and being a Pseudotropheus saulosi by your description, it is a rock dwelling fish. Mbuna from lake Malawi. Depending on the size of the tank, try and setup 2 seperate rock piles on either end of the tank with open area inbetween. Of course the smaller the tank the harder to do this, and the more territory 1 male will want. The purpose of the 2 piles is to give each male a territory of rocks.

Pseudotropheus saulosi are very interesting fish in that males can retain female coloration and females can sometimes take male coloration. In the wild dominant males usually setup territory and stick to it and don't school with the females and subdominant yellow males.

Multipule male saulosi can be kept together in a tank, its possible. But what size tank do you have?

I'd let it work itself out and only step in if you see injuries taking place.


EDIT: I must add that while rearranging the decorations will cause some confusion and loss of territories...its still the same size glass box with the same fish. They will reclaim them very fast. I really don't see much of a point doing it personally unless you have a really large tank.
 

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ksrowe8

ksrowe8

Small Fish
#3
Feb 1, 2003
25
0
0
Eagle-Vail, CO
www.myspace.com
#3
Well, I have a 29 gal. tank. I've had these 2 in the same tank for over a year now! I've never had this problem, that is why it is so suprising! lol. Thanks for the advice. I will give that a shot. I do have some rock formations in the tank. I'll try to rearrange a little more to allow for more defined boundaries.

Again, Thanks for the help!*celebrate
 

kay-bee19

kay-bee19

Large Fish
#7
May 6, 2006
156
0
16
Tampa, FL
#7
Got a pic of these fish?

'Scribbled pseudotropheus' is one of the common names for the msobo (which has been reclassified under the metriaclima genus). It'd be interesting to know whether you have saulosi or msobo.

Is the male blue with black vertical stripes or black with random blue streaks and 'scribbles'? Females of both species are similar to each other (solid yellow-orange).
 

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