Cichlids have a reputation for not mixing well with other fish in an aquarium, usually because they are protective of their fry. This aggressive impression can also be assumed, albeit incorrectly, to be the reason why some cichlids will uproot aquarium plants. Not all cichlids are aggressive, but if keeping those that are, the prepared aquarist will understand the reasons for the behavior and can decide on the appropriate method of dealing with it.
Reasons for Cichlid Aggression
The uprooting of plants in the cichlid aquarium is caused by the cichlid's breeding behavior. It can be caused indirectly by the cichlid digging a pit in which to spawn its young. A large cichlid can sometimes be seen to take more direct action and pull the plant, but it is trying to rearrange the area to make a suitable pit.
Other forms of aggression are aimed at other species of fish, but also at other cichlids and in some cichlid species, even between the sexes. The reasons arise from breeding or parenting or in some cases can simply be territorial or hierarchical in their nature. In some cases, the urge to attack another fish is primal and if the only other fish in the tank happens to be the other parent, then the latter will be the object of the attack.
Prevention Techniques
Lack of space is the key factor in continued aggressive behavior in aquarium fish. While some small cichlids, even aggressive ones, can be adequately housed in an imaginary diameter of half a yard of water, larger types of cichlid could occupy more than eighty square yards in the wild. They clearly will not inhabit an aquarium of that size in a domestic environment, but sharing a smaller space with other inhabitants is going to be a potential problem with some fish.
Clearly a large cichlid aquarium is highly beneficial. Given enough space, conflict can sometimes be avoided. For example, the firemouth cichlid's color helps deter fish, especially when the firemouth puffs out its coloured throat and gills to add to the display. Different types of cichlid are more prone to particular types of aggression, for example towards all other fish, simply other cichlids or only other cichlids of the same or a particular species, so some research might be advisable if a mistake has been made in housing incompatible types.
With some cichlids, where the aggressive displays are generally fairly minor and may be of a territorial nature, it is sometimes possible to stop the behavior by moving the internal structures around so that the territorial boundaries are changed. Given enough space in an aquarium housing several fish, the attacked fish may simply be able to hide for its attacker's attention to be distracted, though this is unlikely to be a reliable long-term solution.
Partitioning the cichlid aquarium is the normal solution employed to combat aggression, though there are some variations of the technique:
- creating smaller compartments to house pregnant females
- dividing partitions to separate male from female, older adults from fry or near-adults that will be viewed as competitors
- dividing partitions to put larger fish, not necessarily cichlids, into to deter aggression by the problem cichlid; a common variation is to do this using a separate tank
- the previous method is also employed by using a smaller fish, that distracts an aggressive fish, especially a male that otherwise might be prone to attacking a female
If the above techniques have been exhausted and there is clearly insufficient space for a fish to escape its attacker, then separation and the use of extra tanks will be unavoidable.
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