Question

[Slopster]

My male blue zebra is really aggresive when he wants to mate I had 2 females in there with him, I've already had fry from them, but this time it seems as though He got a little to aggressive and killed the one female( well wounded her to the point where she could not swim) and the other Cichlids pretty much finished her off, now he has been taking his aggression out on the other female and she looks ok all fins intact and all but she is laying on the bottom not really trying to move that much.
The male always comes over and vibrates like hell in front of her but she doesn't move towards him.

Question is should I take her out and put her in a holding net or take the chance and leave her in there with him and the others?????

I understand that they get quite aggressive during mating but to what degree..

Rob..

[-DC-]

this is normal, most Mbuna will require several females, 3-4 Min too 1-2 males, is a good ratio too start for most Mbuna, some species like melanochromis for example will require an even higher ratio of females. Sometimes mixed species/over crowding helps too disperse aggression allowing for smaller groups of more species too disperse the aggression but as a general rule of thumb female heavy is the way too go

[Slopster]

Ahh thank-you muchly..

Rob..

[Slopster]

Well it seems my other female didn't make it through the nite
Now it seems as though I'm in need of 3 or 4 Mbuna females, I guess blue Zebras mate with only there kind????...

[-DC-]

sorry too here it, they can be very hard on females, and my Blue male is one tough fish heck of a set of lips on him. what's the rock work like in your tank ?? DO you have lots of cave ? Any narrow cracks (width wise) I find females love tight narrow spaces too get away from dancing males,

Spots where the sides of the fish almost touch the walls on both sides of them males can dance in front of the opening too coax the female out but if she's been beaten or not receptive the male cant really get in too do too much damage. in my experience numbers helps but rock work is the real key too survival, I've gotten away with some pretty male heavy groups without issue by overdoing the rock work.

[Slopster]

I've got good small substrate with mixed crushed coral in it, probably about 50-60 pounds in a 77 G, And i have a big piece of branchy driftwood and good sized mexican bowl rock that i've made into caves and samll areas for hiding.
I've been noticing one of my other cichlids ( a bumblee ) this one has gotten large fast and when it's pissed of it turns almost black, I'm wondering if this one is doing any damage in there also. Not sure if it's a male or female, it does alot of excavating as of late, it doesn't mess with my big Blue male or the Venustus or any of the Hap's or O.B. Peacock.

So maybe It's time to swap them over to my newly aquired 90G and get more rock work and driftwood in it????

Gotta find somewhere or someone that has females, is there any known way to find out (other than venting them) the sex of them???

[Mferko]

if you decide to get more rock i have some for cheap
http://www.bcaquaria.com/forum/fresh...nzanita-18737/

[bingerz]

slopster, sorry to hear that. =/ im having a similar problem with my red zebras. ive only got 1m and 1f. this is the second time it's happened. the first time, he tore her up pretty badly!! i put her in a breeder box hanging on the inside of my tank. it took maybe almost two months for her to grow her fins out again. when i put her back with the population...there were no problems. until i started messing with the temperature.

i read online that you could encourage breeding by dropping the temperature for a few days and then raising it. so i tried that as a little experiment and i think it worked for the male red zebra. he was chasing her around, getting all aggressive....and he tore her fins up again. not as bad as the first time...so i made this thing out of eggcrate and zip ties and it's just sitting in my tank. completely kills the look of my tank...but i'd rather have that than a dead fish. i'm so attached to my fish.

i like that its alot more room than the breeder box and she gets fresh water, sometimes she gets visitors from the smaller fish that could fit thru the holes. she doesn't like it though...she'll chase them out. i took her out last week to see what would happen....with no luck. the male was at it again...chasing her around....tearing up her fins again. i put her back in the eggcrate quick, didn't wanna lose all that time it took to grow what she had. so far she's probably been in there for a month already.

[Slopster]

Hey Bingerz,
I like that idea of the egg crates, wish i had thought of that earlier
Next time for sure, if it happens again....Funny how there is no tension in the tank now that the females are gone????

But i'm going to try and find at least 4 females for him, I've got 12 juvies left and i'm selling them today hopefully, so gotta get so more ladies for that stud in my tank..

Rob..

[-DC-]

ya , definitely add more rockwork, Bumble bees get larger and grow much faster then other Mbuna, if it's turning blues/blacks it's a male once mature it will stop turning yellow/brown and stay black/blue/grey , females keep coloration similar too the juvenile yellow and brown, no way too sex when young other then venting

My big male bumble bee is what is aggressive at times and I've heard the same from others, and if they get the upper hand in a fight, or see a fish weakened for some other reason they will beat it too death. Although many male Mbuna are like this..

You should have more caves then fish, and various sizes so smaller fish and females can evade males, some examples,








EDIT: For egg crate i like the box, but with only a few fish it's easier just too make dividers too drop into the tank, hold them up with rockwork or get fancy and glue a couple suction cups onto them lol. I personally let them fight it out but i have LOTS of spots for them too hide and or recover, and even then fish can and do die some times,..... and those fish become feeders