Adding adult fish to an already established set up?

[shawe1]

What is your general success rate with this?

I have only done it on 2 occasions but neither were successful and had to pull them from the tank, and this was in a non aggressive community!

My most recent experience with this was adding a fully grown orangehead tapajos to an established community and two fish of similar size (on separate occasions) fought with him, lip locking etc - the aggression never died down and I had to pull him from the tank.

Its annoying that if I want to add fish to a community I have to get fish that are smaller than all the current inhabitants to avoid them being beaten!

 

[Drstrangelove]

In the past, I've not had many problems like this, but that could be because I handled it differently.

1) is your tank over crowded
2) do the fish have more that enough territory (there are leftover spots)
3) is the tank decor complex (items that block views, like wood/leaves/plants/bubbles)
4) do you re arrange the decor when adding new fish
5) do you add fish with lights off
6) are the new fish perceived as mating threats (same color or shape as existing fish) or resource threats (for food or mating sites)

Naturally, nothing will solve every issue. Some fish are just so territorial that they want the whole tank. In that case, it may get down to what fish are you keeping in the tank.

 

[Crazy mike]

With adult cichlids only way I've had it work is to remove the current occupants,move around decor, add new fish, give it a few hours, turn off lights put the others back in. Even then it sometimes doesn't work.

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[shawe1]

In the past, I've not had many problems like this, but that could be because I handled it differently.

1) is your tank over crowded
2) do the fish have more that enough territory (there are leftover spots)
3) is the tank decor complex (items that block views, like wood/leaves/plants/bubbles)
4) do you re arrange the decor when adding new fish
5) do you add fish with lights off
6) are the new fish perceived as mating threats (same color or shape as existing fish) or resource threats (for food or mating sites)

Naturally, nothing will solve every issue. Some fish are just so territorial that they want the whole tank. In that case, it may get down to what fish are you keeping in the tank.

Thanks for this, although there is plenty of tank space your comments certainly give me other things to consider

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[pops]

I added a old rescue female jag to my 180 oscar tank, has gone well for past 6 months, dowt a male jag would have but size of tank plays a large part.

 

[Jkempel]

Couple of days ago I added a Midas in my tank with an Oscar and a Mayan (and some other fish) till now no problems

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[ZEROPILOT]

Aren't Oscars pretty peaceful? I mean as far as large cichlids go. I would never dream on adding another fish to my flowerhorns or even my red devils.

 

[Matt S]

From my experience no matter how much you rearrange the tank shut the lights move fish around....cichlids are still cichlids.. All have their own personality and when it comes right down to it if they don't like another fish in the tank it will be a war
I've add fish that I thought I may have problems with and the tank stays peaceful and then I've also added fish to a tank that I thought I would never ever have problems with and WW3 breaks out in the tank so in the end it can be a roll of the dice



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