Hello forum! My tank is about 500 liters with 2 external fluval filters. I had bought 2 small green terrors with 3 small Texas cichlids and 3 small jack dempsey in the tank there were already inside a Polypterus senegalus and a pleco not to big about 20 cm. after a month the 2 green terrors died from aggressiveness of the other fishes. And I went on vacations for 3 months having an automatic feeder and someone coming to clean the water, when I came back the 1 Texas was gone and the 2 small Texas had now breed and the tank was full of swimming fries, also the 1 jack Dempsey was gone and from the other 2 the one was big and full of colours and the other was getting bullied by the color full jack Dempsey and it’s in a bad condition.. after a week of watching the tank today I woke up and there were very little baby fries left and the female Texas parent was in a very bad condition cause the male and the jack dempseY bully her to death. Why is this all happening I’ve read about these species doing good with each other ? I need your advices of what to do
Breeding gone wrong
- Thread starter Jonniewalkr
- Start date
My only guess would be too many fish in too small of a tank. 132g a.k.a 500L sounds like allot of space but when ya have a tank filled with big aggressive Cichlids and some are breeding that amount of space just isn't enough to keep everyone happy. Texas, Jack Dempseys and Green Terrors are all large mean fish. The Texas having their fry probably threw the whole tank into chaos. These fish are all know to atleast guard 200g a.k.a 757L of water around their young in order to protect them. Personally I would remove the Texas pair and put them into their own tank seperate from everybody else so that when they do decide to try for fry again that they won't feel a need to try and kill everyone else in the tank.
Hopefully some moderators or someone else with a bit more experience chimes in with their own 2 cents on the subject as well.
Fish are like people they dont always get along. Some people have success with housing aggressive cichlids together but many dont. My JD is a real bully. Hes down to one carpintis cichlid in the 150 gallon tank with him. They are both 9”+ and the jd throws his weight around. Over the course of my jd’s 14 month life hes killed and eaten probably a dozen fish that I tried to keep in the tank. Mainly dither type fish but hes killed a few cichlids when the lights went out. Like magnus said breeding cichlids cause allot of aggression issues.
As mentioned biggest issue is too many fish for tank size. Then you toss in breeding and all bets are off.
These two tiny Convicts kept the obviously bigger fish in a 1/4 of the tank guarding fry till I got a divider.
If I were you I would pick my favorite Texans or JDs and rehome/move to another tank the rest. You may even need to put the female Texan in a hospital tank for a bit to heal up in peace or at least a divider.
Eggcrate light diffuser is sold at most hardware stores and makes for easy to make dividers.
These two tiny Convicts kept the obviously bigger fish in a 1/4 of the tank guarding fry till I got a divider.
If I were you I would pick my favorite Texans or JDs and rehome/move to another tank the rest. You may even need to put the female Texan in a hospital tank for a bit to heal up in peace or at least a divider.
Eggcrate light diffuser is sold at most hardware stores and makes for easy to make dividers.
What I did is put out in a hospital tank the female and took out the fries in another small tank and I’m gonna send the fries to my niece which she has 2 big tanks waiting for some fishes ( my old tanks) now everything is good in the main tank the jack Dempsey who was getting bullied now it’s fine and the male got back to his light blue colour and everything is fine I’m waiting for the female to recover to out her back in in the tank there are 2 jd and 2 Texas( the female is out now I’m talking in general scenario) a polypterus and a pleco