75 gallon, a single and a pair?

[Gourami Swami]

Yeah these guys look to be small adults already, idea of getting 6 juveniles is to let them grow up and pair off, but seems like you got adults right from the start. How aggressive are they to the others? I find it's helpful to have other fish of the same species in the tank; but since the tank is small quarantine tank, and your saying these 2 are bigger than the other 4, I'd fear for the safety of the others once breeding aggression sets in. If these are bigger than the others + definitely a pair, I'd move the others out. Then keep an eye on the male + female, if male is too hard on female might need to divide them while in the small quarantine. May not be a problem, but males can easily turn on females especially if no other fish + in a small tank.
Hey, some people have no luck getting a pair to form! looks like you've got the special sauce!

 

[Dwl0222]

Yeah these guys look to be small adults already, idea of getting 6 juveniles is to let them grow up and pair off, but seems like you got adults right from the start. How aggressive are they to the others? I find it's helpful to have other fish of the same species in the tank; but since the tank is small quarantine tank, and your saying these 2 are bigger than the other 4, I'd fear for the safety of the others once breeding aggression sets in. If these are bigger than the others + definitely a pair, I'd move the others out. Then keep an eye on the male + female, if male is too hard on female might need to divide them while in the small quarantine. May not be a problem, but males can easily turn on females especially if no other fish + in a small tank.
Hey, some people have no luck getting a pair to form! looks like you've got the special sauce!

Yeah, these two I would guess are around 2 inches each, the one that is closest to them maybe around 1.5 inches or a touch more, and the 3 smallest are around an inch or so. These are obviously just guesses but the small ones are definitely around 1/2 the size of the big guys though, like I said.

As far as aggression...they chase a lot. Sometimes nipping if they get the opportunity. I don’t see too much additional damage on top of the torn fins that they came with yet though. The others do hide a lot in or behind pvc...but they don’t act too stressed at the moment. They’re all eating well etc.

When you say move the others out, do you mean re home them completely or just get them in the 75 even though they haven’t been in quarantine very long? I’m not sure that that would really solve anything other than letting them get a head start in there and maybe grow a bit for a couple weeks to at least be able to hold their own. Or maybe keep them all in there and add a few (4-5?) zebra danios to the quarantine, would that distract them at all or would they just ignore them since they’re not really a threat?

If I do re home them, once the pair are in the 75 would adding catfish (school of Corys etc) or anything else that could help to build a pair bond to avoid the male turning help? As of now I have 10 giant danios and 4 green swordtails in there. I’ll post a couple pics of the little guys- some may be the same fish...

 

[Dwl0222]

Oh and yes, I’m very happy it seems I got a pair....but let’s hope I can figure a way to make this work

 

[Gourami Swami]

Ideal situation would be to put the other ones in another quarantine tank until all are ready to go in the 75, and then put the small guys in the 75 first and let them get settled, after quarantining separately, then add the pair last. If you don't have another quarantine tank, I would divide the tank they are in now, giving the large pair the majority of the space. Wont be the greatest amount of space, but better than the little guys getting murdered in the tank.
And as far as the pair bonding thing, cories etc. might help a little bit, but my cichlid pairs have mostly ignored non-cichlids. They will chase them away from the fry sure, but other cichlids seem to work best for that purpose (aka- your other non-paired sajicas)

 

[Dwl0222]

Ok, I do have a divider so I can definitely make that work. Knowing a 20L might be pushing it for 6 small but growing Sajica and especially with a pair becoming aggressive and needing space....how long should I keep the other 4 in the quarantine? Do I keep their quarantine to a minimum, say 2 weeks, then add them to the 75 and open the entire quarantine up for the pair and keep them there for an additional couple weeks, giving the 4 little guys a chance to settle in in the 75?

 

[Gourami Swami]

No hard set rules to this stuff, But personally I'd probably keep them all in quarantine for about 6-8 weeks, put the little guys in, then put the big pair a couple weeks later.