Stalsbergi aggression ?s

B

BuffaloPolypteridae

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Ok, I've raised my stals with some sevs, geos, bichir and festae. All of which are 3 inch and under, minus the bichir. Aggression is what I expected, chasing some light nipping but recently I literally saw him rip the eye off a live Geo then kill it trying to get the other eye. It was pretty brutal. Haven't changed anything in the 40, haven't had a cichlid do this.. Ever lol is this going to get worse or better? My guess is worse

Point is does the stals need to be a loner? The geo wasn't much smaller then him, about a half inch smaller. Initially I was told that the larger geos festae and such can handle him but now I'm not so sure. I can set up a Rubbermaid tank for him temporarily until my big tank is ready, then I can transfer him to a divided section of my 70 once the larger guys are out

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Goliath Tigerfish
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Is he wild? Haven't kept stalsbergi, but until some experienced stalsbergi keepers show up, my comment is that I have kept wild rivulatus and that wouldn't be surprising for them-- way too aggressive for geos, except maybe brasiliensis types. Wild GTs deserve the name ime and, while individuals can vary, I wouldn't expect wild stalsbergi to be much different based on what I've heard about them.

That said, it's likely that part of the problem is tank size if he's in a 40 gal-- and I don't know that a 70 is big enough to be a long term fix. Even at 3-4 inches I found wild rivulatus needed more than a 4 ft tank to keep them with much of anything else.

Festae could be the next problem, if your geos are suriname types a festae is likely to be too much for them, except maybe in a much larger tank.
 
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The stals is CB, got him at .5 inch from rapps with my teugelsis. He was literally as big as his tail lol. In the 70 he would need to deal with juvie pbass a bit bigger then him, a 9 inch red wolf, an equal sized 3 bar DAT, and an assortment of upper jaw bichir ranging from 5 to 9 inch. So I'm hesitant to move him in there. I'm thinking I may need to setup a decent sized tote tank for him temporarily. Once I increased the flow in the 40 with a power head the aggression dropped to nearly no chasing even. I turn it off for feeding and forgot to turn it back on, that's when he took out the geo

They are brasiliensis, the only one left is chunky as hell and stands his ground. That's the only reason I tried with them, not one person told me it'd be an issue. The festae are small, like 2 inch and under and don't really do anything crazy... Yet haha.

I'm aware they are needing an upgrade, that's why I suggested splitting them up. The festae are going to be used to breed with a green Texas in a friends 75 ga, I'm just growing them out until he sells his comm fish, tetras and such. I just don't want to set up a tote tank if I don't have to lol

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Goliath Tigerfish
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BuffaloPolypteridae said:
The stals is CB, got him at .5 inch from rapps with my teugelsis. He was literally as big as his tail lol. In the 70 he would need to deal with juvie pbass a bit bigger then him, a 9 inch red wolf, an equal sized 3 bar DAT, and an assortment of upper jaw bichir ranging from 5 to 9 inch. So I'm hesitant to move him in there. I'm thinking I may need to setup a decent sized tote tank for him temporarily. Once I increased the flow in the 40 with a power head the aggression dropped to nearly no chasing even. I turn it off for feeding and forgot to turn it back on, that's when he took out the geo
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See what you mean, don't think I'd move him in there yet, either.

They are brasiliensis, the only one left is chunky as hell and stands his ground. That's the only reason I tried with them, not one person told me it'd be an issue. The festae are small, like 2 inch and under and don't really do anything crazy... Yet haha.
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Interesting. Based on the result I assumed suriname types, but I would have tried the stals w/brasiliensis too... Like I said, since there were no comments yet I just extrapolated from the wild rivulatus I've had... but where are the stalsbergi keepers?
:popcorn:
 
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BuffaloPolypteridae

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Right lol I guess there just aren't many, I know there's a guy that right around the same time I got mine he got a group from Rapps too so we were comparing growth n such I gotta find that thread and ask him how the aggression is

Yeah though they were confirmed brasiliensis, they were fine for quite a while and seemed to be able to handle themselves. Did your riv ever just snap and kill by himself? Like not breeding induced? I just don't wanna lose then festae before I move em to my.friends place

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BuffaloPolypteridae said:
Did your riv ever just snap and kill by himself? Like not breeding induced?
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I had a small group of them, forget exactly how many, since it was some years ago. But it wasn't so much they snapped one day as they were belligerent almost from the start, not much more than 1.5 inches and almost soon as they got over their shyness being in a new tank. And they became more and more aggressive as they grew. By three-four inches I couldn't keep them together anymore, since they fought constantly and one died. Tried them in different tanks, including African hap/peacock tanks, which worked for a while. But eventually I traded down to one and kept him in his own tank. Was breeding several species in most of my other tanks and it was the simplest solution for me at the time.

Funny, unlike the tank raised rivulatus I've had, which were mostly fairly personable, the one guy I kept out of the group of wilds-- he didn't even seem to like me that much. :grinno:
 
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BuffaloPolypteridae

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Haha yeah I've recently begun handfeeding mine and he doesn't bite me so far so good. He hasn't killed anything else, in fact his chasing and nipping has reduced drastically. Added more flow to the tank so when he shoots across to bully he gets knocked off balance and just stops.. Kind of like yanking a dog to the side to break its thought process. I'm going to try him in the 70 with the big guys, he's got the attitude for it and I'm pretty sure he can't be eaten. Gonna put a divider in like 5 inches away from the wall with a lil hole he can escape through in case my wolf or pbass screws with him.

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The eye eating is uncommon, but that's when you know you have a disgusting cichlid.

I had a red devil do the same.

These are the true Green Terror. Never had them, I had a friend that did though. He told me they were nuts, much nastier than a gold saum.
 
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PwNz I R COLE

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BuffaloPolypteridae said:
Ok, I've raised my stals with some sevs, geos, bichir and festae. All of which are 3 inch and under, minus the bichir. Aggression is what I expected, chasing some light nipping but recently I literally saw him rip the eye off a live Geo then kill it trying to get the other eye. It was pretty brutal. Haven't changed anything in the 40, haven't had a cichlid do this.. Ever lol is this going to get worse or better? My guess is worse

Point is does the stals need to be a loner? The geo wasn't much smaller then him, about a half inch smaller. Initially I was told that the larger geos festae and such can handle him but now I'm not so sure. I can set up a Rubbermaid tank for him temporarily until my big tank is ready, then I can transfer him to a divided section of my 70 once the larger guys are out

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I have one from rapps aswell they can be pretty nasty at times

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BuffaloPolypteridae

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Ill add some pics to this shindig. Yeah I'm on the verge of getting him a solo tank, or maybe him my red wolf and ropefish as I feel none of them will be able to live for life in my build coming up

uploadfromtaptalk1398324580987.jpg
Haha didn't realize there is a perfect ctenopoma silhouette above him there

uploadfromtaptalk1398324704199.jpg

The fish is absolutely stunning, I just wish it would coexist better lol. Excited to find out if its male or female
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