So far, w/ my whole less then a week of experience in keeping dats (just got my first recently) he bullies on my leopard ctenopoma, which is a very similar fish in general shape and face as a small dat so that may factor into it. He leaves my albino senegal completely alone, ignores him like hes not even their. I think movement has a great deal to do with their aggression. Mine is already on pellets ( i think the store had them on pellet ) and will almost only eat the sinkers if they are dropping or come off the ground b/c of current, doesnt seem to like to eat off the bottom at all. Basically unless the first one hits the ground before he realizes.
For these reasons i would imagine slow moving, calm, not flashy fish would do well with dat. I also use an almost bare tank with some fake floating plastic plant and a couple plastic patches of tall grass. Its been said many times that can cut down on aggression from ambush preds, keeping the tank w/ minimal cover. IME it does quite a lot, my indo doesnt seem to be as mean as yours or many ive read about, also my red wolf fish lives w/ 2 orino pbass under 4 inches, totally capable of becoming snacks. The only reason i think they are still alive is that they are quite quick and cant be ambushed due to tank structure in my 70. Dat is in the growout for pellet training/QT still.
All in all, i think when you try again lessen the amount of decor. That may stop him from claiming territory at all. As for other tank mates like i said, they dont seem to like flashy fish so be careful with that. The flash of silvery scales in many cases sets ambush preds off
For these reasons i would imagine slow moving, calm, not flashy fish would do well with dat. I also use an almost bare tank with some fake floating plastic plant and a couple plastic patches of tall grass. Its been said many times that can cut down on aggression from ambush preds, keeping the tank w/ minimal cover. IME it does quite a lot, my indo doesnt seem to be as mean as yours or many ive read about, also my red wolf fish lives w/ 2 orino pbass under 4 inches, totally capable of becoming snacks. The only reason i think they are still alive is that they are quite quick and cant be ambushed due to tank structure in my 70. Dat is in the growout for pellet training/QT still.
All in all, i think when you try again lessen the amount of decor. That may stop him from claiming territory at all. As for other tank mates like i said, they dont seem to like flashy fish so be careful with that. The flash of silvery scales in many cases sets ambush preds off
