African cichlids have a lot of personality. An excess of it, in fact - the alpha fish of any one species may take a very particular dislike to another individual fish and harass that fish to death. And these aren't even predatory fish! (Ironically, the predatory African cichlids tend to be more easygoing fish, although of course if they spot any fish small enough to fit into their mouths, the little one is history!)
I've had to remove and rehome an acei due to a grudge, and it's looking like I'll have to do the same for one of my cherry red zebras. The dominant fish of the trio simply cannot stand one of the two others at all; I've already had to remove it to quarantine to recover once, and rearranging the rockscape and reintroducing the gamma fish didn't go well. The poor thing hung in the corner and tried to become invisible, which of course didn't work. Within a week its fins have been shredded, again. But as I had already disassembled the quarantine tank for now, I've isolated the poor thing inside a net box in the main tank, where the bully fish can't get to it, and I can give it food without the other fish taking it away. (They're all very frustrated by this.)
The prospect of having to rehome this fish is upsetting, because they were quite expensive to buy; one of the major downfalls of keeping African cichlids. Unfortunately at the time there weren't any juveniles available, so I had to buy adults, which are far more expensive. But the probability of somehow making these fish get along together is pretty much zero. If only I could get them to breed for me, and save some fry, I wouldn't mind it at all! But so far only the acei have been breeding.
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