Tilapia fighting with ca tankmates

[openbook]

Mostly these fish get along but yesterday morning it looked pretty bad. Tilapia's head got banged up a little by a rock and his side got a injured a tiny bit by nicuaragua biting at him in the side. It looked like he was hitting hard, like when they hit food.
Tilapia doesn't bite hard, but with that big mouth it fits over half of Nicky's face. Then Tilapia goes and torments green terror, putting his big mouth on his side, stalking him, going around in circles.
I think the Nicuragua gets angry at Tilapia for bullying green terror and goes on a rampage. Eventually Jack Dempsey breaks things up by going after both Nicky and Tilapia. He's not much help though, he prefers just to hang out under a rock mostly. He's also getting outgrown by his tankmates due to his shyness. They will eat 6-7 pellets by the time he eats 2.

I worry if I move Tilapia that Nicky and Green terror will start to fight like this. It seems like they need to find someone to pick on and stick with that fish. Tilapia used to torment firemouth so I moved them to another tank and then it became green terror and tilapia fighting.

I don't think my wife would let me trade Tilapia to the fish store. She was the one who saw it needing to be adopted at petco for a dollar. We bought him without knowing what kind of cichlid it was. He was only 3 inches at the time, now 8 months later the fish is 9-10 inches long. He's super friendly and will eat from my hand. None of the others will do that.

I'm thinking of getting a 90 gallon tank used. I'm not sure though, I am already taking care of 3 tanks and it is alot of work.

[convict]

Do you have any dither fish in there? It may help with the aggression.

[Lab_Rat]

What size tank is this? Agree that dithers could help. I've not heard of a nic being that aggressive, my nics are very laid back. They only get a little aggressive when they're defending eggs/wigglers. I couldn't imagine mine taking on a GT or tilapia. Unless you're not talking about a nicaraguense cichlid and are talking about another species...

[openbook]

We have 2 bala's in the 120 gallon tank with them. The cichlids don't bother them much.
The nic looks just like the one in your avatar, except he doesn't have that long black streak yours has. He only has the dot. Apparently he was returned to the fish store for beating up africans. Tilapia is african too, maybe there is a correlation? He get's along pretty well with gt and jack.

[openbook]

Quick pics of the family. Lately Tilapia has been losing all the gray markings and shown the pure yellow and red in it's fins. I don't know if that's the fish adult colors or just what they do when mad.

[openbook]

The red tail shark in the first pic is no longer in there, I was afraid he might eventually be eaten. The bala sharks are 6 inches and 8 inches roughly. They are very pretty fish in their own right with black banding on their fins. They seem even more striking when they get big.

[WhiteDevil]

Have you checked with the DNR on that fish yet? I know they are 100% illegal to own here in Illinois due to their serious invasiveness(makes the asian carp look like a mere irritation then problem)

We have to notify IDNR if we do catch an invasive species with hook and line here as well as in fish stores. We have caught everything from tilapia to pirahana to asian carp in ours local waters here and had to get dnr to document em. I do know they are only known to spawn in southern florida but I think its the damage they cause to the local native fish habitat that they get all gung ho on this.

The tilapia is also native to africa so maybe that might have a hand in what you are dealing with in a central american tank.

[skullduggery1]

Tilapia are now living in Central american waters and you can catch them more often than the natives.

[skullduggery1]

You are safe, the list in minnesota does not list tilapia as illegal.Just fish that could actually live through winter are on the list.

[openbook]

I didn't think they were illegal because I've seen them at reputable fish stores. What boggles me about that store is they have a tank with cheap baby jacks, green terrors, firemouths, tilapia, jewels, and much more. Apparently it's fine until they reach maturity, but then what? You have to return a fish that doesn't get along? Hard to do when your attached to them.

[Lady Hobbs]

Wish I wouldn't have seen this thread. I just had Tilapia for supper the other night and now feel bad (but it sure was good.)

[Lab_Rat]

I didn't think they were illegal because I've seen them at reputable fish stores. What boggles me about that store is they have a tank with cheap baby jacks, green terrors, firemouths, tilapia, jewels, and much more. Apparently it's fine until they reach maturity, but then what? You have to return a fish that doesn't get along? Hard to do when your attached to them.

All stores have inappropriate stocking for when the fish hit maturity. You can not base your stocking off of how a fish store has their sales tanks stocked. Even display tanks at LFS are generally not a good stocking model since they can easily swap out fish if problems occur. You are responsible for selecting appropriate fish that can live together for their lives, not the LFS.

[openbook]

All stores have inappropriate stocking for when the fish hit maturity. You can not base your stocking off of how a fish store has their sales tanks stocked. Even display tanks at LFS are generally not a good stocking model since they can easily swap out fish if problems occur. You are responsible for selecting appropriate fish that can live together for their lives, not the LFS.

Yes that is true.

[Strider199]

Wish I wouldn't have seen this thread. I just had Tilapia for supper the other night and now feel bad (but it sure was good.)
You crack me up Lady.

Africans can be nice one minute and a terror the next. Thats why I dont keep them anymore. Once was enough for me.

[Lady Hobbs]

I was being honest, tho. Frozen Tilapia is sold in all the grocery stores. Easier to eat than pronounce it, for sure.

(sorry I hijacked)

[Sandz]

All stores have inappropriate stocking for when the fish hit maturity. You can not base your stocking off of how a fish store has their sales tanks stocked. Even display tanks at LFS are generally not a good stocking model since they can easily swap out fish if problems occur. You are responsible for selecting appropriate fish that can live together for their lives, not the LFS.

+1, everyone is responsible for their tanks and knowing the propper stocking for their personal situations.