New to cichlids, should I be worried?

[ryanoh]

I have a GBR that hangs out in the corner of my tank at the top, sort of positioned at a 45 degree angle. I can "scare" her down, and she'll stay around the bottom for a while, so its not like she can't come down, she just won't.
Is this just a personality thing or should I be worried? Its been going on for about three days now.

 

[skjl47]

Hello; The description sounds like the fish may be hiding. I have seen this behavior before from fish that lost the territorial fight. It will get as far away from the dominant fish as physically possible. It may be that the other GBRs are more dominant of the three or perhaps a mated pair. It may also be that the other two have taken the best available spots and there is no other suitable hiding place left. Adding additional structure may give the fish a refuge. It may be best to rearrange the structure of the entire tank so as to trick the fish into setting up new territories. I have tried, with limited success, removing a dominant fish for a while and then reintroducing it to a tank. If it turns out that all three cichlids are male, then the tank may not be big enough for each to establish a suitable territory. This is just a guess, so don't fail to look for other possible explanations

 

[ryanoh]

I thought about that, but its the female who's hiding so I'm not sure what that means other than its not a pair that bullying her. The other less dominant male sort of seems to be hiding too, so I may need to just rehome the super dominant male and let the two shy kids pair up.

On a side not, I have a platy who does this too. In fact, they were huddled up together this morning (her and the GBR). I have one full grown male and 3 full grown females, so his attention is pretty spread out. What makes this one fish hide? Is her personality just to run away from the male?

 

[skjl47]

Hello; In my experience cichlids will be very aggressive toward other cichlids of the same type but are also to some degree aggressive to all other fish in defining the boundaries of a territory. I have not kept platys for a very long time, so do not know if they are particularly territorial. There is sometimes a pecking order in a tank independent of territorial issues. I kept a group of serape tetras in a community tank and they seemed to make it clear that all other tank mates should move aside from wherever they happened to be. There was no clear territory, they seemed to take over any part of the tank they moved into. I later introduced ten dime sized tiger barbs and the serapes were demoted to second place in the order. Now the tigers occupy any part of the tank whenever they decide to.
Another observation is that very shy fish hide much less if given a secure place of their own. I have pieces of slate that can be stacked in various ways. I usually make a stack with several nooks in a community tank. My kuhli loaches are out and about quite often now that they have a tight place to stay.
I also keep fairly dense patches of floating plants, hornwort in my case, that fish will shelter in.

 

[ryanoh]

The platy was doing that before I got any of the cichlids.
Also, I have plenty of caves and stuff, and lots of floating plants, so I'm not sure what else I could add. : /

 

[skjl47]

Hello; Time for some watching to see what is happening. One other thought is a question of how long have the fish been in the tank? Sometimes it taks a while for them to settle in.

 

[ryanoh]

She's and one other male have been in there a week today, the second male was added one day later.

 

[ryanoh]

My female died today.

My other one, who I think is a male, is paler than the day he was when I brought him home, but he's acting normal, which is an improvement from the last few days. Did the other two maybe kill the third one? I'm pretty sure its not a water quality issue because the one male seems to be thriving. What should I do?

 

[nanu156]

It's your water, or they came sick.

Did you test your water? Do a water change tonight, and another tomorrow, add an extra air stone, check the temperature, and if you don't have one go buy a test kit asap API liquid, they are 35.00 or so.

Rams are not usually aggressive so I'm not going to site aggression as your issue. I think it is likely water, temperature, oxygen, or illness.

 

[1077]

Agree with above ,though the post is a few weeks old and may be too late.
GBR generally do best in soft acidic water with temps around 82 to 84 degrees F and fair poorly in basic alkaline water and temps much below 78 degrees F.Also are quite sensitive to any traces of ammonia or nitrites such as might be found in newly established tank(s) or tanks that have not (cycled).