Major problem

[flx2000]

first off hi everyone, new to the board.
i have some yellow and orange cichlids can't remember names.
when i bought the yellow ones they got alone with my cat fishes,
then i bought the orange ones, then i noticed one of my catfishes was missing one eye, later the second one, few days later i found that it was one of the yellow ones attacking the cat fishes. now they bought have no eyes.
any clues why it's doing it?
they got alone fine before.

[standoyo]

do you have african or south american cichlids? a pix would help...
cichlids in general are only nasty towards their own kind.[always exceptions]
african cichlids tend to be more aggresive. it is actually better to keep more to keep themselves busy at each other. african cichlids like hardwater, reverse for SAC...and most catfish are from softwater regions.

[flx2000]

they look like these: http://www.cichlids.com/pictures/pic/-aee9745518.html
exactly.
just found out they are africans ( yellow labs) lake malawi

[Cichlid Connections]

Hi Flx...... A warm welcome !!

What u have there are a mixture of African Cichlids.. The Yellow ones are Labidochromis Carraleus (Yellow Labs),the orangy ones are Maylandia Estherae (Red Zebras) and the Spotted ones are Tropheus Duboisi. First and foremost both the yellow labs and Red Zebras hail from Lake Malawi and Tropheus Duboisi from Tanganyika. All are considered Rift Lake Cichlids and need hard alkaline water to strive. Although with similiar water conditions, tropheus are really considered vegetarians compared to the other two species which is omnivorous. They have short digestive tracts and don't do to well with high protein foods. They do readily take in any prepared foods but their dietary needs are really different from your regular mbunas. They are actually algae grazers in the wild. There are however contrary success stories which have their tropheus breeding and doing fine even with high protein diets. Its entirely up to you.

First and foremost you must understand that cichlids are territorial and nasty.... they do fight among themselves and death is often the end result. In your choice of fishes I do see the Tropheus as being the nastiest in there although yellow labs and Red Zebras do have their reputation too. Tropheus are better off in a species tank of 8 to 10 fishes in a 90 gallon. In your community you might want to overstock on more Malawi mbunas so as to spread the aggression.

As to whodunit to your catfish, we can't really tell... it could be either. Can you describe what sort of catfish you have in there or a pic would really be good? The best suited catfish in with rift lake cichlids are synodontis multipunctatus, petricola... which are quite expensive.

[RazorBlade]

Welcome to the cichlid world flx2000!

Missing eyes? Actually that happens all the time with Malawi cichlids - not too sure what catfishes you have, Malawi cichlids defend their territory and are not that 'welcoming' when it comes to intruders.

Your catfishes are probably intruding in the Electric Yellow's territory, hence the "lost eyes".

You should let us know what type of catfishes you have - some of the more hardy ones (like the upsidedown catfish) I have been able to keep with Malawi cichlids successfully.

Photos are most welcomed.

[BlueDempsey]

Usual stuff if you have african cichlids. Used to have some those days when I was fooling around. Gold fish all got whacked eye after eye. Tragic but LFS was quite happy not telling me anything except that you cant keep the gold fish with luohan.

[flx2000]

http://www.planetcatfish.com/catelog...ifo/750_10.PHP

Not an exact match but, this is close.
they are both dead now.
(Your catfishes are probably intruding in the Electric Yellow's territory, hence the "lost eyes".)
Actually they got along fine until i added Red Zebras.
i think it was a fight for food.

[RazorBlade]

That's the 'common pleco' aka "Bandaraya". Most likely a Sailfin Pleco - pretty common in M'sia.

Should get along fine with your Mbunas - I've had mine for years.

UNLESS you have not been feeding your fish enough, they MAY turn on the Pleco. The Pleco normally is able to defend itself, but in my experience they have become food before (if you can talk fish, you can probably ask my Malawi cichlids why they attacked/ate my common pleco in 2004).