Top 5 least aggressive cichlid

[DJRansome]

Also surprised to hear the trets are least aggressive. I think most any fish kept in the right sized tank with the right ratios and/or tankmates is manageable as far as aggression. But I had always heard trets are an exception. And the perspicax mbuna.

What about the timid haps, peacocks and Victorians? Lethrinops. Kandeense. Christmas fulu.

 

[SilverArowanaBoi]

I have found that Discus were very peaceful, although I will say one of mine had a lot of spunk and would set things back in order if things in the tank got too feisty. Always a treat to watch lol.

 

[tiger15]

^ What a beautiful tank what are those plants secured too..

Geophagus especially the redhead & orangehead tapajos are super peaceful as far as I know.

Yes, Geophagus, with the exception of Brazilensis, are mostly peaceful. G Juruperi is one large ciclid that can be kept with discus. The plants I have are different variants of Anubias, They are tough plants anchored roots on lace rock creating hiding places for cave dwellers.

 

[tiger15]

Also surprised to hear the trets are least aggressive. I think most any fish kept in the right sized tank with the right ratios and/or tankmates is manageable as far as aggression. But I had always heard trets are an exception. And the perspicax mbuna.

What about the timid haps, peacocks and Victorians? Lethrinops. Kandeense. Christmas fulu.

I have kept male only Haps peacefully in a 125g as long as I keep a single species of each. Multiple male of the same species, including least aggressive peacock, will fight viciously at maturity. I have never had peaceful Victorian. All show disproportional aggression toward its own kind and other fish. The way I gage aggressiveness of a cichlid is whether I can keep a group permanently in the same tank. Trets is surprisingly one of them but not peacock.

 

[duanes]

I think most any fish kept in the right sized tank with the right ratios and/or tankmates is manageable as far as aggression.

This is the key to it all.
If you try to keep even two dovii in a 150 gal tank (a mere puddle compared to where they live in nature), of course they will be overly aggressive, and fight to the death.

If you keep 3 of them them ina 1000 gal tank you might be fine..

Or you try to keep 3 Rams, or A nanolutrus ina 20 gal (also a mere puddle), they will probaby tussle.
Keep the same 3 Rams in a 6 ft tank with approriate dithers, no problem at all.


Its all about adequate territory, for the species one is trying to keep, which most keepers seriously underestimate.
Especially when in comes to true loners, verses those species found in large varied communties
In rivers where I collect cichlids, I might only find 2 individuals of 2 species in a riverine section the size of a city block,
this should be a bit of an indication as to what works, or doesn't.

 

[tiger15]

Tank size definitely has moderating effect on cichlid aggression. In home aquarium where tank capacity is finite, you can increase virtual capacity by introducing sight barriers. Jim Cumming has videos of large CA guarding eggs in neighborhood of flower pot dividers in 300g. Colonies of cave dwelling Julie’s and Lamprologus can be kept in rock caves in 55 to 75g. The reason I can keep a colony of Trets in 75 g is to provide a lot of sight barriers in a heavy planting. Sight barriers have limited moderation on open water dwellers, and truly aggressive cichlid will ignore sight barriers and actively hunt down victims.

 

[Omrit]

Peacocks were never aggressive for me, but I always have had them with larger haps that probably kept them in line? Peacocks definitely get bigger than people seem to know though because a 75(often cited as a decent tank size for a group) looks really small with full sized peacocks in it.

I used to keep Star Sapphires with regular community fish. Had them in with barbs, loaches, and gourami without issue.

I have a female(I assume) Malawi hawk in with my Chocolate cichlids, severums, and other fairly mellow cichlids. I wanted to breed them but they all arrived dead except her and then they were out of stock so I just added her to my existing set-up and shelved the breeding project for now. She is very well behaved and the other fish totally ignore her, I assume because she is shaped so differently.

 

[tiger15]

Peacocks were never aggressive for me, but I always have had them with larger haps that probably kept them in line? Peacocks definitely get bigger than people seem to know though because a 75(often cited as a decent tank size for a group) looks really small with full sized peacocks in it.

I used to keep Star Sapphires with regular community fish. Had them in with barbs, loaches, and gourami without issue.

I have a female(I assume) Malawi hawk in with my Chocolate cichlids, severums, and other fairly mellow cichlids. I wanted to breed them but they all arrived dead except her and then they were out of stock so I just added her to my existing set-up and shelved the breeding project for now. She is very well behaved and the other fish totally ignore her, I assume because she is shaped so differently.

Peacock come in difference size and aggressness depending on species. Like Haps, peacock are largely conspecific aggressive. The largest and most aggressive peacock are the swallow tail Jacofrieberger species, reaching over 7 inch in male. I currently have the smaller less aggressive species, Aulonocara stuartgranti Flametail, reaching 5 inch in male. I have an adult male in my 75g and 4 subadult male in my 125g raised from past spawn. From past experience, I can’t house more than one adult male in my 75g, and daily harassment by the dominant male on others in the 125g is getting worse daily so long term cohabitation may not be feasible. So I would not rate peacock as the least aggressive African.

 

[DJRansome]

Not all of them, just some of them. Kandeense for example.

 

[Hybridfish7]

This thread is about the least aggressive cichlid. There are no truly peaceful cichlid as they all defend territory during spawning and protect young. But there are different levels of aggression. The most aggressive cichlid will take fight against other fish at all time, even against bigger fish. Less aggressive cichlid will fight with its own kind occasionally and always during spawning. Least aggressive cichlid will fight to defend territory only during spawning period. When a cichlid eat smaller fish, it is not aggression but predatory. Tank size affects aggression. Some peaceful juvenile cicllid turn aggressive when they out grow their tank. On the other hand , some notoriously aggressive tankbusters turn mallow when housed in a huge tank.

I didnt say Nanolutae is the smallest convict, just the smallest among the few I have kept. Convict is a common name for dwarf CA. But size is relative as I’ve seen some old male black convict developed big hump and reach 8 inch, not dwarf relative to MBUNA.

1. I mean "convict" as in Amatitlania nigrofasciata, specifically the lineage consisting of northern populations that appears in the molecular data from Bagley et al 2016. If you're using "convict" as a general term, it "technically" only applies to the genus Amatitlania. People refer to panamensis and Cryptoheros as "convict types" just because they look similar and all used to be in the same genus, but genetically panamensis are closer to all the other isthmus genera (Talamancaheros, Isthmoheros, Darienheros), which are then closer to Amphilophus, and Hypsophrys/Neetroplus are closer to Amatitlania than Amatitlania is to Cryptoheros, though the four make up a small clade (said clade also happens to be sister to Parachromis). My latter two examples can be seen in Rican et al 2016 and I believe another paper by the same people from 2020.

2. I am aware of housing and that affecting aggression.

3. The definition of aggression is "hostile or violent behavior". By definition this includes predatory behavior as they have the intent to kill other fish and thus cannot be kept in a true community setting. I believe you mean to say "territorial". By your definition there are 0 peaceful fish in general as every fish is territorial to some degree. The list I provided includes cichlids that do not cause damage to eachother or other fish even when spawning, and hold small enough territories when spawning to not cause distress to the whole tank. No predatory instincts other than the ones nearly every fish has, which is to opportunistically eat fry and invertebrates. I would also like to add keyhole cichlids (Cleithracara maronii) to my list for this reason.