I read your thread on cichlidea, that would be an ok idea, getting something to dominate the tank insted of the dominate male tho.mixteco.
what other fish do you have?
i kept my first batch of tho.ellioti in a 55growout with 5" blue acaras, 3" salvini, 4" jack dempsey female and the thorichthys still decided to beat the $**t out of each other, lost 3, have to left but in another tank i have 5 more ellioti which are doing alot better as the first lot had messed up genes or something, they just began to waste away.
in my 20 gallon which is a juvie grow out all 2.5" or less there is 3 severums, 5 ellioti, 2 male tho.mixteco blue and a young pair of sajicas, the mixteco is the dominate and keeps all the ellioti in the top water, but no damage is done.
you could hope for the best and put extra hiding places, also places where the smaller ones can retreat from the bigger fish. hopefully the dominate male will go through and pick off everyone bar one female, my male didnt do this, he just picked on everyone. you will have seporate the less dominate or he will kill them.
or you could try getting a more dominate fish maybe a GT, they are always good fish to split up fights and will keep them in check, you wouldnt be able to house the 2 pairs and GT in the 55 tho....
i have also found that thorichthys are nicer to each other in 2s, some maybe divide the tank?
but it is said to be very simular to normal cichlid breeding. water changes, lightly cooler water in w/c, good live/frozen food and maybe bump the temp up a little.
