My 4 inch chocolate has become a real jerk, he spends most of his day keeping a larger male severum in one corner. Recently he has been nipping the fins pretty hard, Ive tried to re-arrange the 100 gallon a bunch of times and nothing seems to work. The only time hes calm and sits in his cave is after hes eaten a ton. Dont really have any option to rehome him as my other tank up right now is a 90 with a rd. He used to be a calm fish but now is not, have others found this to be true, from most ppl it seems that they are pretty laid back but..
aggressive chocolate
- Thread starter irishfan
- Start date
Not always. There are plenty of reports of them snapping and killing oscars and other large fish. They are one of those crap shoot fish, most are nice but some seem like they rather be central american rather than a placid south american.
Ya I rearrange the whole tank, tons of plants, wood, caves, etc and he checks the whole place out then decides to have one main spot. He gets bored and decides he has to own the whole tank. Pissin me off
There are two seperate species of chocolate cichlids. The H. Temporalis variety is typically peaceful. Its the most commonly found species on the US.
The sometimes imported H. coryphaenoides species is far more aggressive.
The location of the large black spot is the simplest indicator of which species you have.
The spot sits lower on the H. Temporalis and higher for the H. coryphaenoides.
I've owned several chocolates over the years, only the H. Temporalis, and aside from my old breeding pair never had any aggression issues. Even with the pair, they weren't that bad. They really aren't as tough as other cichlids and don't normally deal the damage out like a red devil/midas mix can. They can still kill more mellow cichlids like severums though given enough time.
The sometimes imported H. coryphaenoides species is far more aggressive.
The location of the large black spot is the simplest indicator of which species you have.
The spot sits lower on the H. Temporalis and higher for the H. coryphaenoides.
I've owned several chocolates over the years, only the H. Temporalis, and aside from my old breeding pair never had any aggression issues. Even with the pair, they weren't that bad. They really aren't as tough as other cichlids and don't normally deal the damage out like a red devil/midas mix can. They can still kill more mellow cichlids like severums though given enough time.