Shy  Cichlid ??

[rdracer66]

I have a 55 gallon tank and im new to fish hobby, but growing fond of it very quickly started witha  5 gallon then a 10 which are all still going, and now i wanted to get a 55 gallon
found a great deal on one with stand and a wet dry system for 275$ and he knew a friend that breeded cichlids so i got mine at a great deal, anyhoo i have a total of 16 fish in there 7 small labdio chrombi  ? the solid yellow guys  sorry for my mis spellings
and 2 psuedo trouopus that i got at walmart lol there really preety tho and seem to be doing well, and i have a sucker fish
and then i have 6 peacocks 4 small and 2 almost fully grown the male is coming into his color a nice blue with some orange
not sure of the actual name sorry !!
anyhoo i had the psuedo tropy's in the tank for 1 day with the sucker fish, then added all the rest except for the 2 big 1 male and 1 female fish so peacock wise i have 4 females and 2 males the last 2 i got the big ones about 2 weeks afterwards
They all seem very happy except that Big male any time i come into the room he goes hiding behind this big lace rock i have, he's created a hiding spot back there and for the most part never comes out !
I see him from time to time out and about but if i get up out of my chair for example he Darts !!!
it took me 30min to get like 2 picutures of him
my main concern is that he's not getting enough food, they all come up to the top when they see me coming to the tank knowing they'll get fed, I try to feed them about 3 times a day
and they suck it down quick less than 30 sec
O i had the system going for a week before i put any of the fish in it, and it was already a established tank with discus in it when i bought it with a wet dry filter system that is great now that i finally figured out how to get it working correctly!
so any ideas on what to do here ?
should i be concerned with his eating ?

Rd

 

[jbfootin]

Re: Shy  Cichlid ??

One thing with cichlids is that there are some groups that will not get along.  This is a mistake I have made in the past by thinking that since all cichlids, although agressive, will get along.  Or that a less agressive cichlid will do alright if with smaller more agressive fish.  This does not work unless you have a very large tank with lots of hiding spots and even then it is just survival for the less aggressive fish.  Pseudotropheus and Labidochromis are both much more aggressive than Peacocks and will pick on them until they die.  I had the same setup with 40L tank with Kenyi and Aurautis and got some Peacocks from a freind that was breading them.  The male Peacock was larger than my current fish so I thought that he would be OK.  I kept an eye on his fins to see if he was being nipped or picked on and he seemed fine but the 2nd week he started hiding more and the in a few days he was dead. (costly mistake you don't forget)  I have a feeling the same thing is happening in your tank.  The females never had any problems but that is mostly because they are less colorful and female so they are not a threat and are usually left alone.  
These are helpful links:

http://www.aquariumfish.net/catalog_pages/cichlids_african/cichlids_african_mbunas.htm#top2

http://www.aquariumfish.net/catalog_pages/cichlids_african/cichlids_african_peacocks.htm#top2

I hope this helps.  I know that it is tempting to fill a tank with many different kinds of cichlids to get all the colors but you have to be carful

Jay

 

[rdracer66]

Re: Shy  Cichlid ??

I got all of these fish from the Breeder who has all them in the same tank as well a big 125g
and in all honesety i think the chrombi's that i have atleast are preety tame, there small right now like 1-2in
and the peacock in questino is 4-5in and i persnoally never see anyone really mess with him, he just doesnt come around when it's feedign time or im in the room !
at first i thought he was breeding with the female that he came with, because i see them both in that corner from time to time and i guess that still is a posbility but im more concerned with him eating mostly, i dont see him fight with anyone not yet atleast
Rd