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Two of my dwarf petricolas were fighting each other this evening. It was very interesting to watch -- they were swimming side by side all over the tank trying to jab each other with their pectoral fins.

There are six of them in a 6' x 2' x 2' tank with a breeding colony of Labidochromis caeruleus cichlids, a few plecos and some loaches.

There is plently of cover in there.

Is it normal for them to fight? Could it be fatal? Anything I should do to intervene?

If they are adult Petricola, it is likely the Male chasing the Female in an attempt to spawn. If they are juvenilles, I have many, they are just play fighting, being a little territorial, and is usually harmless to any extent.

They can and do fight a LOT harder than that; especially when it's alpha-male versus challenging male or alpha-female versus challenging female....

I've seen them gripping each others' upper lip and ripping the whole thing off; mandibular whiskers and all!

luckily the regenerating abilities of these critters ranges right into the unbelievable; within a month or two all skin including two proper whiskers grew right back.

the same thing happened when my biggest male granny challenged the big female granny and lost; that fight lasted for almost a week (!!) and at the end he looked like something the dog brought in as a chewie

grew right back too; except he has now a "mark"; one of his big mandibular whiskers has a definite "bend" halfway.
doesn't faze him one bit, though. he's still picking fights now and then with fish too big for him (like that female, my big Giraffenose and the A-male Tropheus and the big male N tretocephalus) and as a result getting his butt kicked.

The fiercest fights I've seen was when I combined Synodontis "petricola sp Giant" with S petricola "Burundi"; a mistake wich has been corrected since I've seen parts of fins or skin floating around