Meanest Cichlids (kinds of tropical fish for those that don't know)

[xyyz]

What's the meanest cichlid that you've had?

I have had the following:

1 green terror
2 red oscars
5 jack dempseys
3 texas cichlids
2 kribesus(es?)
1 red devil
1 colbalt cichlid
3 firemouth cichlids

I had a few others that were unremarkable (the blue african one with the darker blue vertical stripes, Kenji or something)

I loved the Jack Dempseies... although they are supposed to be super hostile, mine were darlings, the only fish one female was after was another female... they didn't really bug anyone occasionally the female would flare out at some other fish... and these guys were HUGE, about 9" from lips to tail and extremely fat (well the male was at least). To top it all off they were both hand fed... but very gentle, the male had these huge sharp teeth but it would always nip around my fingers when i held food... only once did it accidently bite me and give a finger a nice deep slice.

Then I had a Texas Cichlid, this guy grew quickly to about 7" and was a serious bully, it would always pick on my Red-Tailed Fin Foil Barbs... so I isolated him and put him all alone in another tank. I added other fish to this tank, which was a huge mistake, because it went after them viciously. I further isolated him to decide what to do, but it died a week later... go figure.

The oscars were sweet fish, really personable, but when it came feeding time, you needed to keep your finers away becaue they would literally jump outta the water and bite at the food in your fingers. These two grew to about 6" and were killed by the Red Devil.

The firemouths were all bark, but they make a nice spectacle whe nthey get pissed... they flare out their bright red gills... I never really saw them attack anyone, but they sure did threaten alot. I think the biggest one I had 4" was killed by the red devil as well.

The colbalt cichlid, the kribesus and the blue one didn't really do much the kriebesus used to fight amongst themselves and the colbalt was killed by the red devil.

That brings me to the red devil. When I first threw this guy in the cichlid tank the oscars thought it was a gold fish and tried to eat it. I guess it got both of the oscars back in the end, as well as the green terror, a texas ciclid, firemouth, colbalt cichlid and some others. This guy isn't as big as the jack dempsies, but it's really stocky, and it has a huge hump on it's head indicating it's a male. Right now it's about 7" and horrible. This thing will ram the glass and snap at you if you come close to the aquarium. Often i graze a finger along side the glass and watch as this thing comes flying outta it's little cavern snapping at the glass and puffing it's gills. I want to breed this one, but i'm scared that it will kill the female.

Anyone know anything about other cichlids... I heard the convicts are pretty bad, but i've never had one.

It would have been interesting to see who would have survied between the texas, red devil and my jack dempsies though.

 

[Linh]

you've listed all south and central american cichlids.... these do not compare, ounce for ounce, with most africans. put a similar sized african with any american cichlid and they'll quickly be made mince meat. i've had many texas cichlids, oscars, jack dempseys, and convicts that have been hounded literally to death by africans less than half their size. africans don't bluff, they just attack. most americans cichlids, in my experience, bluff and bluff and put on all sorts of displays, but have no fighting style, they just mouth each other. the africans, though, would quickly maneuver and attack the body or rear section of his adversary.

 

[xyyz]

the colbalt is an african... it was manhandled... even by a smaller texas.

maybe it's the batch that I have... which african cichilds are you talking about specifically? I haven't seen any african cichlid actually ram glass to get to you... I've seen it with both large red devils i've come across.

 

[Aquaman]

I think it all depends on how big your tank is and who is in it. I think out of those fish the Jack Dempsy is the meanest in small quarters.

Cheers,
Aquaman

 

[xyyz]

what's the name of that small yellow affrican cichlid, that grows no larger than 2-3" that will take on anything?

 

[Vincent]

When I was in high school I had firemouths, convicts, kribensis, and angelfish. They were all pretty mild, actually. Convicts have a reputation of being pretty rough, but mine weren't.

I got the firemouths, convicts, and angelfish to spawn. It was quite a thrill to see.

When I get a real job I'm going to get myself a 50+ gallon tank. That'll be fun.

 

[trmiv]

Yea, the overall most aggressive species I've had have been types of African Cichlids. I have a 100 gallon with Malawi African's and its quite a tough crowd. Right now in that 100 there are three male fish who fight for superiority, while the others just stay out of their way. Those three are:
1)Pseudotropheus Zebra (sp.) (he's just a zebra variation, massive dark purple stripes. one of the coolest zebras i've ever seen)
1)Cynotilapia Afra "White Top" (this fish is absolutely brilliant looking)
1)Pseudotropheus Crabro "Bumble Bee"

Those 3 are the largest males in the tank (all around 5 inches) and they are extremely aggressive and constantly bicker with each other. The Zebra is THE leader of the tank, no matter how much the other two fight, when the Zebra comes over, they scatter. Between the 3 of them they have considerably thinned the ranks in the tank by killing of fish. Of course, the Zebra has started to crowd the tank a bit by mating with a "Rusty" to produce these really cool looking half Rusty half Zebra's offspring. There are about 8 of his kids in the tank right now, and one of them is damn near dad's size. He is beginning to battle the other two fish for second place in the hierarchy under his dad.

The problem with African Cichlids is once you get an established tank like the one I have, that's it, you aren't putting in anymore fish. They accept the smaller one's they have lived with a long time, but any new additions are quickly and violently attacked, even if I move the rocks around. They are extremely territorial, and no methods of distraction I've tried has been able to get them to ignore newcommers.

I've had south american's too, and they are pretty aggressive. I had one that was extremelly aggressive, it was a Manaquense "Jaguar Cichlid." I bought him while working at an aquarium store. Took that sucker home and he was awesome, within three months he had killed 2 Jack Dempsey's, 2 Firemouths, a red devel, a pike, and a green terror. I finally took him back to work and put him in a holding tank. A few days later someone wanted to buy him, so I sold it to him. Now this thing was only about 7 inches at the time, and the guy said he had 2 full grown Dempsey's, a big red Devil and an Oscar at home. I told him, even though the Managuense I was selling him was smaller than his fish, it was extremelly mean, he wanted it anyway. 5 days later he comes back with the fish. It had killed both dempseys, the Red Devil, and had started on the Oscar. A friend of mine had a similar experience with a Dovii, those suckers are plain mean too.

 

[damocles]

Ack

seems a bit brutal for pets

 

[trmiv]

You know what are aggressive but people rarely think of them as being aggressive? The saltwater Domino Damsel fish. When those things get bigger, they get super territorial. In the wild they are known to attack divers to protect their territory. And while working at the pet store, they used to attack my hands while I clean the tanks. They aren't that big, but they aren't scared of anything.

 

[whizbang]

I had a roommate in college who used to feed his Oscar cockroaches.

 

[Kindjal]

I have a couple of Zebras and Bumblebee Cichlids in my 55G.

By far the Red Zebra is the most aggressive, territorial, and industrious (digs like mad). The Blue Zebra is his foil and will take the Red to the mat if challenged. The Bumbles are aggressive among themselves and have actually bred in my tank. I have a about 10 Bumble babies that are getting bigger every day.

 

[ChrichtonsGirl]

I have no idea what the specific names of each one is, but I have seven African cichlids in a 50 gallon tank, and only one is psychotic (the male albino). He spits rocks at the other cichlids (stays away from the pleco) and chases them whenever they leave the weeds and invade the middle of the tank. I stuck with all cichlids (except for the pleco, obviously) because the last time I'd kept fish, I had an angel fish that would eat anything else I stuck in the tank. Very traumatic, lol.

We've got a couple of babies (they're about a quarter inch now) and oddly enough, he protects them. He keeps all the other fish away from them when they're out in the main area of the tank and he digs little shelters for them then guards them when they're in there.

 

[tigerbait]

The bumble bee is by far the meanest I've had. Got rid of it to save the lives of my haplochromines. The chipokee is quite mean also.


currenty I have in my 75 gal:
"Deepwater" Electra
Livingstoni
Obliquidens
Ahli
Trout Cichlid
Sunshine peacock



In the past, I have had:

4 Oscars (2 tiger, 1 red, 1 albino)
1 Managuense (Jaguar) <---- this was a cool fish .. I know what you mean, trmiv
2 Jardini arowanas
2 firemouths
2 texas greens
3 jack dempseys


edit: nice tanks Kindjal. How is that Emperor filter doing for you?

Can someone identify the small fish on the bottom of this pic? I got one the other day, but dont know the name. It was really small, and marked as &quot;Mixed African.&quot;

edit: I think this fish is &quot;Melanochromis joanjohnsonae.&quot;

 

[tigerbait]

bump for some more cichlid discussion

 

[thebestMAX]

Lots of good fish (and other pet info) here;

PetsForum

Tigerbait-

Email John Kuhns that picture and I know he will have an answer for you.

 

[hungrypete]

African cichlids are definitely the meanest. I've had 4&quot; african cichlids tear up my 13&quot; Albino Long-Finned Oscar (not a cheap fish). I finally got rid of the cichlids, and not long after my Oscars committed suicide ( knocked the plastic lid open, jumped out of tank, very sad...) and now all I have is one 12&quot; Dempsey, one ~15&quot; pleco, and another pleco about 7&quot; long...
Fish rule, I totally miss my long-finned Oscar, she was so pretty....

 

[ratkil]

I love Red Devils. I get such a kick out of them. Especially the whole gravel re-arranging thing. I will let mine move all the gravel the way he likes it then I will smooth it all back out again. He can move it all in about a day, simply unbelieveable.

As far as the meanest I don't recall if it was a cichlid but I had a fish that was called an Exodus Para something or other. Silver fish with a large black dot on the side of it. The meanest fish I have ever seen, the damn thing was chasing a snakehead around.

Edit: actual name is Exodon paradoxus, don't think it is a cichlid after all, but one meana$$ fish.....

 

[Optimus]

My Bumblebee Chiclid is by far my meanest - the other assorted Afrian Cichlids I have don't come close!

 

[ChrichtonsGirl]

Wow, I had no idea there were so many kinds of cichlids. Don't kill me, but we originally got the tank to give our psychotic cat something to look at during the day so she wouldn't climb the walls.

I definitely have two of these Malawi cichlids: labidochromis caeruleus

one of these Malawi: maylandia lombardoi

one of these Malawi: maylandia callainos

one of these Malawi: labeotropheus fulleborni

The psycho fish looks a lot like a Pink Convict, but he's got red eyes (all the better to look psycho with, my dearie). I didn't find pictures of the other ones, but they look sort of like the last one, just different colors.

So far, the babies look like the first two fish I listed.

 

[SirFshAlot]

I did the cichlid tank some years back. Only 20 gallons, though.
Fortunatley, I found a pet store with a young employee who was very well versed in cichlids.

He got me into the Tanganyican(sp?) varieties, and I had some real cool blue one with stripes and yellow ones with stripes, and then some orange ones.
I have a book specific to cichlids at home.
I recommend getting one if you are going to have a tank of cichlids.


I ended up going back to the low maintenance tetra tank after a year or so.

 

[Creepster]

One of my best friends owns a pet shop and I have had tons of beautiful fish (we trade skills...fix his computer...he fixes my tank..hehe). And by far the Red Devil shows the most attitude, I put my nose close to the glass and she went ballistic trying to attack me. But the meanest, sneakiest fish I have ever seen still lives ALONE in my 29 gallon tank. He cross-bred a female Pseudotropheus Saulosi (pure yellow) and a male Greshekii (Ice Blue Zebra, normally rusty looking gets brilliant glowing white with ice blue stripes...AWESOME!!!!). Well the babies reproduced their own kind, sort of mustard yellow with purplish stripes and they glow like their daddy! This fish killed 2 Kenyii, 3 yellow Labs, and 3 assorted peacocks.
It even would harass my Sydontis Shoutendenii!!! I'm gonna get him outta there and redo my tank. :disgust::Q

 

[tigerbait]

How can you let a Mbuna kill your peacocks? That is not right.

BTW, is there any sure way to pick out a male peacock when they are young and colorless? I play this guessing game, and most of the time I end with a bunch of grey fish.

 

[isekii]

<< What's the meanest cichlid that you've had?
1 green terror
2 red oscars
5 jack dempseys
3 texas cichlids
2 kribesus(es?)
1 red devil
1 colbalt cichlid
3 firemouth cichlids
q]

This is the meanest Cichlid I think.. I've had one.. and it ripped the $hit out of all the other Chichlids I had..

I've owned Jack Dempseys, Texas, Rainbow, Africans, and some more that I dont know the names of...~

Oh yea.. I also had a Convict Cichlid and it was pretty mean.. but it's nothing compared to the Pike Cichlid

*note* it's illegal in Texas.. ROFL

 

[Elita1]

Meanest fish I ever had?

My sunfish. Cannibal Carl.

Not sure if they're considered cichlids but this dude loved to eat his own kind and nothing else.
Eventually we threw him into a pond because he would've been solitary fish and at the time Optimus wanted Clown Knife fish.

 

[tigerbait]

Socolofi is a pretty mean african as well.