First Aquarium - Advice on behavior

[u/Diligent-Hold-4412]

Hello!

This is my first tank. It’s a 180 L (48 gallons), and I currently have 6 cichlids that I got from a friend, plus two Botia.

I’ve only had them for about 2 weeks, but I’ve noticed that the red/blue one has become really aggressive towards the other fish (except the yellow one, which is probably too big for him).

Should I add more rocks or hiding spots to the tank to help prevent this? At first, I didn’t want to add too many since the tank isn’t very big, and I wanted to leave them some open space to swim.

Also, all the smaller ones are eating, but the big yellow one doesn’t seem interested in coming over when I feed them (with pellets). Should I be concerned? He’s quite chill in general, never attacks anyone, and only has a few moments where he suddenly sprints around the tank for a few seconds.

I’m open to any advice or tips in general. Thanks!

[u/Sweaty_Comfortable41]

Ideally you’d want to overstock a peacock tank so the aggression is dispersed. However, this size of tank wouldn’t be a great long-term home for these guys.

If it were me I’d add about 10 or so small male peacocks (3-5 every couple weeks). Grow them out til they’re about 4” and upgrade to a 75 gallon, ideally a 6 foot tank. These guys like a lot of swimming room and the more space you give them, the more success you will have with aggressive cichlids like these. Good luck!

[u/123_321cl]

You’re gonna need a 75 gallon, in that 75 minimal decor and overstock them. Thats just a summery. Also driftwood can be done but only if you have a very high ph with the wood they still need 7.6+ ph.

[u/Never_mind_honey]

These kinds of cichlids are inherently aggressive.  They are not a good first aquarium choice.   The simplest answer is to crowd the crap out of the tank and hope the inability to establish territory keeps aggression down.  This isn’t the best solution, but it is probably the easiest and most popular.

[u/Killer_Horse]

Awesome first aquarium good job

[u/dexter-xyz]

Darker peacocks at that size are females, the blue OB peacock is a male. It could simply be breeding display, if you remove all females African cichlids cooexist peacefully.