First and foremost I will introduce myself!
My name is Chris and I am an avid fish keeper. Have kept a variety of fish over the years, mostly cichlids. Have been in the hobby for about 10 years, give or take! I have a 125 gallon Malawi aquarium containing mostly haps and peacocks. I also have a 2x2x2 cube with a sump containing 6x firemouths (hoping to get a breeding pait) couple of swordtails, a tiger pleco, a bristle nose pleco and 4 danios. Finally I have a 70 gallon 4 foot long tank which currently contains 1 single jaguar cichlid. This is a temporary home until I can get a new one hopefully after Xmas! I "rescued" this bad boy as I wanted an aggressive fish, and boy did I get one! He/she is about 8 inches at the moment and is very bad tempered. This is where I need your help please . Currently I am afraid to do water changes lol every time I put my hand in the tank, it immediately goes to attack me. It attacks my gravel vac and is currently throwing around fairly heavy rocks in my tank. I need to move these rocks but am unable to get near them! My question is, would it really hurt if this jag gets hold of me??? Should I allow it to bite me, and if I do, will it satisfy its anger and stop it from doing it again? Lol sounds mad I know but if I can't control its aggression I am afraid I will always have a problem doing routine maintenance etc. how do you large cichlid owners get around this?? I have never owned a fish that I am literally afraid of! Thanks for your help guys!
Chris
My name is Chris and I am an avid fish keeper. Have kept a variety of fish over the years, mostly cichlids. Have been in the hobby for about 10 years, give or take! I have a 125 gallon Malawi aquarium containing mostly haps and peacocks. I also have a 2x2x2 cube with a sump containing 6x firemouths (hoping to get a breeding pait) couple of swordtails, a tiger pleco, a bristle nose pleco and 4 danios. Finally I have a 70 gallon 4 foot long tank which currently contains 1 single jaguar cichlid. This is a temporary home until I can get a new one hopefully after Xmas! I "rescued" this bad boy as I wanted an aggressive fish, and boy did I get one! He/she is about 8 inches at the moment and is very bad tempered. This is where I need your help please . Currently I am afraid to do water changes lol every time I put my hand in the tank, it immediately goes to attack me. It attacks my gravel vac and is currently throwing around fairly heavy rocks in my tank. I need to move these rocks but am unable to get near them! My question is, would it really hurt if this jag gets hold of me??? Should I allow it to bite me, and if I do, will it satisfy its anger and stop it from doing it again? Lol sounds mad I know but if I can't control its aggression I am afraid I will always have a problem doing routine maintenance etc. how do you large cichlid owners get around this?? I have never owned a fish that I am literally afraid of! Thanks for your help guys!
Chris