Big Bully

[andy1985]

one of my ornatipinnis is nipping at another slightly smaller one, they have only resontaly started doing it, it has only started picking on the one i have 2 othere which it is fine with, any reason why just that one?

 

[varanio]

territoriality would be my guess

 

[moonchild1970]

How big is your tank and do you have any hiding spots?

 

[cenecker]

agressive bichirs are rare but do occur...and they are most often agro towards conspecifics...you might have to move one of the ornates out

 

[andy1985]

But this has only happened recentaly? they were fine before just happened.

 

[Bichirs4life]

Move stuff around a little in your tank and at worst move everything out for a little while. Arrange things around to so that bichirs won't get to attached to certain areas of your tank. If you don't have any hiding places in your tank then I sugggest putting some in the tank so that each bichir can go to his or her own little area to chill out. Aggression is going to happen in a bichir tank, and as long as there are no injuries it isn't a huge issue. My bichirs nip at each other all the time. I move stuff around and they're ok, then they grow comfortable with their new spots and start nipping again. I move stuff around and the cycle continues...

 

[moonchild1970]

Ditto. One of mine started that after I added a PVC pipe. He got very possesive of it ,and aggressive to the other two when they went near it.

So I put all new decor in( two and a half big flowerpots) and all is well now.

 

[andy1985]

the only damage i can see is a bit of fin missing.

 

[pwmin]

for some reason, my ornate bothered my payara so much that I had to take it out of the tank, but hasn't bothered any other fish.

 

[andy1985]

Do you think heavly planting the tank would help?