DAILY OBSERVATIONS

Sitting in front of my African community tank I watched the activity in the tank over my morning coffee. I noticed a couple of Zebras acting peculiar. I have a few different Zebras in my aquarium. My Blueberry OB and my Red Zebra were locking lips, circling each other and then they took turns sucking on each other's sides. These actions can be either and indication of preparing to mate, or aggression. I'm not sure what these two were up to. I have never seen them do that before and I haven't seen them repeat this since. I also looked at them closely and neither of them has any injuries. I'm hoping it's not aggression but I do tend to lean towards them declaring dominance over the females in the tank. I'll have to keep watching and see where this goes.

It seems Bubba my previous tank boss is asserting himself again. He no longer hides in the corner. He is now clearly making use of the entire tank. He is not annoying any of the community fish. They are swimming around him as if he's just another fish. He is displaying his dominant colours. Rambo, who took over the tank when Bubba was out for a few days has lost colour and has been staying in his cave most of the time. I have a feeling he is losing his confidence in owning the tank. I will have to continue to watch this pair as well. I still may have to re-home one of them. They are both Zebras and look similar. That is always a bad thing when there are two dominant Cichlids. When having a community of Cichlids, its a good idea to have all different colours and species. Cichlids will fight with the ones that look like themselves first, seeing them as a threat. This may be my problem.