At a loss and need some opinions.

[Thenamescarter]

I have about an 8 month old zz srd and a roughly 6 month old fireman's dream. They got along fine. She laid her first batch of eggs and nothing. Everything stayed fine even after she ate the unfertilized eggs. Month later she laid another batch and nothing. I figure he won't be fertile for few more months at the earliest. After this last batch she started to eat the eggs and he attacked her pretty badly.

I put up a divider it's been about a week. he has since stopped eating and his kok is about 75%. She has decided to repeatedly ram the divider to the point she is bruising her face pretty badly. I thought maybe since they are paired I'm stressing them out keeping them apart. So I removed the divider again. She constantly is up his ass nipping at him and he is aggressively biting her and pinning her to the bottom of the tank. After they will swim around for about an hour and she will start her **** again and he loses it on her again. I dunno wtf to do.

Apart he seems like he's deteriorating in health and she's kicking her own ass against the divider. When I remove it they genuinely seem happy they are always near each other but she get testy and he kicks her ass for it. I can't put a divider up with a hole cause she's about 70% his size so I dunno if he would hurt himself trying to get through her hole. Any suggestions?

Little extra info: 210g tank, only these two flowerhorn are in there. 18inch terracotta pot on each end. 14 inch terracotta dish on center. Low light, 2 fx6 filters, 2 sponge filters and an algae scrubber.

 

[Red Cichlids]

Target fish. Find a group of silver dollars, tinfoil barbs, or other large barbs/sharks to distract them and they should be fine. You want fast-swimming fish that school so that when the flowerhorns attack them, the shoal can split apart and the FH will lose its focus.

If you can find tinfoil barbs about their size, three or four should work. If you can only find smaller fish like silver dollars that are no smaller than 40% of their length, I would add a large group of more like 8-12. I think you will like the look of the tank with the schooling fish in it.

One more option that has worked for me is to add some other large cichlids, preferably Africans so they don't try to get involved in the breeding process. A lot of LFS have some ugly African cichlids, like large female peacocks, which you might get a good deal on because they haven't moved for three years. I have also seen folks on this forum use sunfish, like bluegills, to distract the cichlids from each other. This approach is a little more risky and you have to keep an eye on the tank in case someone is starting to get beat up.

If and when you get babies, you can remove the target fish or just remove the babies and rear them separately once they are free swimming.

Note: it is extremely hard to feed baby fish in a large tank because the food gets so dispersed that most of it is lost into the filter. You can start them in a 20 or 30 gallon tank and upsize as they grow.

 

[Thenamescarter]

Target fish. Find a group of silver dollars, tinfoil barbs, or other large barbs/sharks to distract them and they should be fine. You want fast-swimming fish that school so that when the flowerhorns attack them, the shoal can split apart and the FH will lose its focus.

If you can find tinfoil barbs about their size, three or four should work. If you can only find smaller fish like silver dollars that are no smaller than 40% of their length, I would add a large group of more like 8-12. I think you will like the look of the tank with the schooling fish in it.

One more option that has worked for me is to add some other large cichlids, preferably Africans so they don't try to get involved in the breeding process. A lot of LFS have some ugly African cichlids, like large female peacocks, which you might get a good deal on because they haven't moved for three years. I have also seen folks on this forum use sunfish, like bluegills, to distract the cichlids from each other. This approach is a little more risky and you have to keep an eye on the tank in case someone is starting to get beat up.

If and when you get babies, you can remove the target fish or just remove the babies and rear them separately once they are free swimming.

Note: it is extremely hard to feed baby fish in a large tank because the food gets so dispersed that most of it is lost into the filter. You can start them in a 20 or 30 gallon tank and upsize as they grow.

I was really considering getting a pair of yellow parrots. I'm not too familiar with the breeding aspects. Would they be an ok fit in the tank? Would be awesome to be able to put em in there. If not what's your thoughts on a school of cardinal tetra? Would they do the trick? I've always loved seeing a school of em moving around but not sure if they would be eaten too easily.

 

[Dalfrey86]

I was really considering getting a pair of yellow parrots. I'm not too familiar with the breeding aspects. Would they be an ok fit in the tank? Would be awesome to be able to put em in there. If not what's your thoughts on a school of cardinal tetra? Would they do the trick? I've always loved seeing a school of em moving around but not sure if they would be eaten too easily.

My one parrot can be a royal pain with other tank mates. When he is lone he is one of the most skittish fish I've seen.

Hit or miss with BPs unless you know the source well enough.

 

[Red Cichlids]

Parrots are closely related to flowerhorns and will readily breed with them. If you are wanting to breed your FH, I wouldn't add parrots, but add some unrelated fish like the shoaling barbs/characins, or African cichlids. If you aren't concerned about who breeds with who, go ahead and add some parrots, but I would recommend adding five or six, because a lesser number might get killed.