# Male Mbuna Hiding



## Pareeeee (Jan 22, 2005)

My male Cobalt Blue Zebra never comes out of his cave anymore, even at feeding time, and my other mbunas hide alot too, but at least they will come out if I sit in front of the aquarium for a while.

Just want to know if something is wrong, or how to coax him out, because he is my most beautiful fish in the Mbuna tank and I never get to see him.

PS: He is often, now more than before, 'sitting' on the gravel bottom in the cave, all you see is his nose peeking out.


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## Lisachromis (Jan 19, 2005)

What size tank is he in? What else is he in with? How have you decorated your tank?


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## Pareeeee (Jan 22, 2005)

Well, he just died last night. He was the biggest fish in the tank, and he was a bit of a bully, and he was fat. So my theory is that because he was a bully he got more food than the other cichlids in there and got Malawi bloat, but i wasnt able to see that he had the bloat because he never came out of his cave 

so i guess thats why he was in the cave, he was sick.

there is an upside though, now all the other mbuna have come out because they are not afraid of the blue bully.

too bad though, cause he was my favorite fish


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## Pareeeee (Jan 22, 2005)

the tank is decorated with some plants and a big pile of rocks. i have electric blue johanni, yellow labs, and now only 1 cobalt blue


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## Orbital (Jun 11, 2005)

Characin Gal said:


> Well, he just died last night. He was the biggest fish in the tank, and he was a bit of a bully, and he was fat. So my theory is that because he was a bully he got more food than the other cichlids in there and got Malawi bloat, but i wasnt able to see that he had the bloat because he never came out of his cave


Bummer, the few times I've had fish get bloat they do seem to hide and not come out as much. They also lay on the gravel more then hover like a healthy active mbuna. Sorry to hear your loss. Bloat is hard to catch in time, feeding them a metrondizole coated/treated flake works sometimes. But they need to still be eating in order for it to be effective. :-(


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## IloveCichlids (Jul 11, 2005)

When I had mbuna I fed them new life spectrum pellets. They absolutely loved them and never had problem 1. I raised them from apx. 1" to full grown in a 120.


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## euRasian32 (May 19, 2005)

Always pick the reject, mentally challenged, most drab fish as your favorite...

You should love all of your fish equally!


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

Sorry to hear about your loss. I always worry about fish that don't come out to eat.


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