Demasoni. Deformed??

[S13DWS]

I have noticed one of my fish has little or no tail at all. All of the other had a fanned out tail or at least you could call it a tail. this one in particular is alot smaller than most of the others and his 'tail' is sort of just a point. Is this a deformation of the tail? Have the other fish been eating it?

I have also noticed a couple of them seem to be very small compared to the others including the one with the tail problem.

Should I get one of those nets that goes in the water so I can seperate these fish so i can be sure that they are eating?

Any help would be appreciated.

[Fishguy2727]

They will probably just need to be removed. In general if they are not dominate they probably won't be even if they catch up with the others in size and will always be picked on. Sounds like the one has had his tail nipped off (most likely the case in an African cichlid tank).

[S13DWS]

So it would be best for me to keep the two smaller ones in a seperate tank?

[Fishguy2727]

Yes. I do not think they will do well with the others at all, that's the life of a mbuna keeper.

[S13DWS]

After about three weeks of leaving them in the same tank, (sorry for my ignorance :P ) the two little ones have seemed to really crop up and are now showing quite a bit more colour and size. I know that these fish do grow at an incredibly slow rate but they are so much bigger than when i first got them.

[Jasonizal]

If it doesnt seem like fish are fighting put some mal fix in it or something similar, (you can get it at any fish/petstore for about 10 bucks)