Agression in Cuban Cichlids (nandopsis tetracanthus)

[Jeet131]

hi friends i recently got a young pair of cubans but since they have arrived the male is behind the female he constantly chaises her and drives her behind the filter and doesn't allow her to come out at all i have them in a 10 gallon tank and without any other tank mates and this is a temporary quarantine tank . pls tell me the reason for the same and whats the remedy ? Below is the pic of the pair

 

[duanes]

Even though its temporary, a 10 gal is so small there probably isn't any way to give her sanctuary. I find a 100 gal tank is probably minimum size to keep a pair of tetracanthus from killing each other. And even in that size tank, the male would need target fish to focus on, and help to cement a pair bond with the female.
Mine did well in a 125 gal, but when I tried anything smaller, death was eminent.

 

[duanes]

If there is no other solution, I would divide the tank with some egg crate with one fish on each side until a much larger tank can be had.
Here is what I mean.

egg crate (light diffusor) can be acquired at most big box hardware stores.
I use zip its to tie it together, and cut horizontal, and perpendicular strips to add strength, and provide stability. Without them a determined male can easily break it down,

 

[Rio Kaiju]

Looks like two males

 

[Jeet131]

Even though its temporary, a 10 gal is so small there probably isn't any way to give her sanctuary. I find a 100 gal tank is probably minimum size to keep a pair of tetracanthus from killing each other. And even in that size tank, the male would need target fish to focus on, and help to cement a pair bond with the female.
Mine did well in a 125 gal, but when I tried anything smaller, death was eminent.

Thanks a lot for your reply can you tell me few names of target fish that can be added with them and will surely update the tank as per your specifications

 

[Jeet131]

Looks like two males

Can you pls elaborate a bit and tell me how do you think they are two males as i am new to fish keeping so would like to learn how to sex them looking forward for your reply thank you

 

[Jeet131]

If there is no other solution, I would divide the tank with some egg crate with one fish on each side until a much larger tank can be had.
Here is what I mean.

egg crate (light diffusor) can be acquired at most big box hardware stores.
I use zip its to tie it together, and cut horizontal, and perpendicular strips to add strength, and provide stability. Without them a determined male can easily break it down,

this is a good temp solution thanks for the help

 

[chazwood918]

In my experience every fish really does have a varying personality so the dreary predictions listed above may unfortunately be correct, but given that you have these fish I assume you want to explore any possible solution.

#1 - If they're not getting along, a 10 gallon simply won't work no matter what you do. At least with a 30 (which should be very temporary as well), if these are the only fish in the tank, you may be able to decorate the tank in such way (provide multiple caves for example) that the alpha ends up able to territorialize one spot and ease off the other fish

#2 - Whenever you introduce multiple semi-aggressive fish into a new home, they will always be more aggressive while they settle in. So as long as you consistently monitor the first few days or even week, and keep the fish well fed, more times than not you'll see the pestering ease up and possibly even end eventually.

 

[Jeet131]

Looks like two males

this is another photo of the same fish which i think to be cuban female cichlid

 

[duanes]

In a 10 gallon, there really isn't any room for target fish.
In my 100 gal, I used other less aggressive, but fast cichlids, like the tilapines.
I tried growing out a half dozen tetracanthus in a 40 gallons, and the largest killed all others, in fact I found him with another, only slightly smaller tetracanthus half way down his gullet.
Its hard for me to tell if the smaller one of your 2, has enough dark color in the dorsal to actually be a female. At 3 ", my female had very obvious traits in the pic this below.

But I agree with Rio Kalju there seems a possibility, they could both be males, because the dark area in the pic of yours is not distinct. And at times, subordinate males have the ability to feign female traits as a defense mechanism.