big, mean cichlids....

Question
Hi Ron

I've been put in charge of taking care of all the fish in the Science wing of our school. I do happen to know alot of things about general community tank fish, but Cichlids are an area that is all too fuzzy to me.

Awhile back, about 8 months ago, my science teachers decided to order some fish through the mail. So they ordered a bunch of African Cichlids. They put like 6 of these little cichlids in a 10-gallon tank and basically told me to "have fun" and "try not to kill anything".

They were all fine with each other, for about 2 months. Then one died. Then, about two weeks later, another one died. I noticed they were all fighting over their food and that this one fish was getting much larger and fatter than all the rest. Then another one died. Then another. Then another. and so on, and so forth, until all that was left was this little cichlid and this quite large all orange one that my classmates had named "Jerry". By the end of the week, the other fish died and Jerry was the only one left. Over the summer Jerry doubled, if not, tripled in size. He's now about 4 and 1/2 inches long. I've tried to put everything i could think of in the tank with him to see if he could get along with it. I put this HUGE comet goldfish that was much larger than him in their with him and he had taken 5 huge chunks out of its tail in less than 5 minutes.

I'm really at a loss as to what I should do, Ron.This cichlid is Really Mean! He even killed the little innocent algae eater that was in his tank. I've tried putting almost everything with him, short of buying a Jack Dempsey or an Oscar. I wanted to get the opinion of someone like you before i went out and bought an expensive fish like that.

What should i do? Is there any hope that Jerry will ever have a tank buddy?? Someone told me that I should just flush him, but i would really hate to do that. Will he just die on his own? or do cichlids live a really long time?

sorry if I've confused you at any point. but I'm just very confused and at a loss as to what to do. Any help would be great.

Shelby

Answer
Hi Shelby,
 I guess I am trying to figure out why you are determined to put something in with him.  He is quite happy on his own and in fact I can pretty much guarantee that he will kill anything you put in with him.  

 A 10 gallon tank is a very small tank for a cichlid and he has clearly claimed it all as his own.  (BTW, he would do the same thing in anything up to about a 50 gallon tank )
Cichlids are territorial so please don't try to put anything in with him. It would be similar to you finding a new person in your house/apartment everytime you went home -- you wouldn't like it either :)

-- Ron
  rcoleman@cichlidresearch.com
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