Cichlid Attack!

Trevor has had African Cichlids for the past couple of years.  We were worried about them when we went to Washington because they are very agressive, and will eat each other if not fed enough.  We left them with a 14 day feeder disk for two days.  When we returned, ALL fish looked just as they had before we left! 

Friday, Trevor got two new Yellow Lab babies.  An Albino had been chewed up previously and was living in the "recovery" tank.  When he put the new Yellow Labs in the "recovery" tank, the Albino was moved into the main tank (she's been healed for some time now, just no reason to move her).

Saturday night, I come home (Trevor worked all weekend) to find the Albino all chewed up on her side at the bottom, barely breathing.  I catch her, very easily, and put her in a special net inside the tank.  I sat and watched the fish for quite some time, and the larger ones were being VERY aggressive.  So, Trevor decided they had grown too large and needed more space (when they're small they need to be crowded so they cant single out a fish and pick on it).

We search craigslist for a larger tank, and pet stores for 55 gallon.  [We planned to get a tank over 100 gallons after we bought a house and were hoping they'd make it until then, so we really didn't want to spend the money on a new tank just to turn around and buy a nice one in less than a year.]  Monday, we ended up at WalMart, and purchased a 55 gallon kit for less than used ones were advertised on craigslist, and minus the extra fish they came with!  :)

Here's what we spent last night doing:

29 Gallon - Please excuse the agle, it only showed up on camera...we couldn't see it...must be something to do with the flash.

Trevor saved as much water as possible for the new tank, and cleaned out the sand/gravel.

He caught all the fish and separated the mean ones in the bucket on the right.

He then filled the new tank.

And arranged his decorations, as well as added some new gravel (I spent the entire time he was dismantaling the old tank rinsing the gravel)

After carefully ensuring the water was the same temperature, in went the fish.

Ta Da!  Happy Fish!

The orange fish are Red Zebra's - they look like gold fish to me, and there are three of them.

The black and blue fish was discovered so recently it has not been named... we call it the "Wanna Be" because it looks like some other fish he has but different markings.

The blue striped one is a Demasoni - they're our favorite and are supposedly the most aggressive of all the African's.  They're one of our least aggressive ones.  Go Figure!

The blue and orange fish is a Red Top.  This one is a male, the female is an ugly brown.  We have 4 baby fish from them in the "Recovery Tank" below.

Here is one of the two Albino's.

All of the larger baby fish.  There are three Red Tops and the two new Yellow Labs.

The smallest baby.  It is a Red Top.  He is probably 10 times bigger than when we first saw him, and the only known survivor of the batch.

I am happy to report that all fish are alive and doing well this morning!  AND their aggressiveness has diminished considerably!  Today I am tasked with syncing the heaters at the proper temperature.  :)