Chaetobranchus Flavescens

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
So my Chaetos are beating the everliving crap out of each other. :( They're in a 55 gallon with a tiny female Crenicichla regani. I'm adding a bunch more wood and fake plants tonight to try and give them more room for territories. I have three fish in the tank, about 3 - 4", and it looks like I have one taking up a territory on each end of the tank under a sponge filter with the lone fish stuck in the middle somewhere. They mostly hide when I'm in the room, but sometimes I peek in from the door and see them just attacking the hell out of each other. :(

Do you think I need a bigger tank? I eventually want them to all end up in a 125 or so, given that these fish can get to 10", but I thought I could grow out three of them in a 55 for a while. Should I add more fish? I did get two more Chaetos but they're currently at my friend's house in Connecticut. He'll be shipping them to me sometime in the next week or two. In some fish, like discus, conspecific aggression is best spread out among multiple fish in a group, which is why people always recommend getting at least 6 discus. I don't know if it works that way in the Chaetos' case?

At least I found a food they love -- frozen brine. They swallow whole cubes of it. Their bellies are always round and fat right after a meal now. I wish they'd learn to love pellets that much.
 
Sorry I can't offer any help ryan, I only had one. At the pet store, we had 4 (about 3" SL) in a standard 20 gallon with 5 4" Betta bellica and a bunch of tetras. Never noticed aggression, but of course being a LFS tank it was heavily overstocked. ANd we never got them to eat so they didn't last long.
 
Wayne Leibel's article never really mentioned them being hard on each other, and the one video I found of larger fish on YouTube show them all coexisting pretty peacefully. I also don't remember mine being this aggressive when I had them in with Geos, but it's hard to say if that's because they were distracted or because they hadn't settled in and started eating well yet. Maybe as they got more comfortable, they got more aggressive with each other.

I'll grab some tetras tomorrow and see if they'll calm down a bit.
 
Sorry to hear they are not getting along. Like you mentioned some dither as a distraction might help. I would do somthing like 7 mollies and 5 corys. The mollies will swim right in and among them at feeding time and the corys crusing the bottom should give them another target to focus on. Might want to get the 125 ready too. They are so beautiful I really hope it works out for you and them.
 
Try feeding them plankton freeze dried or frozen. They are mid-water sifter feeders.
I have two males 8-9 inches.... That is all they eat for me.... They are truly an amazing fish....For some reason I can't post picture....Go to yahoo groups NJ_Aquarium_Society photos That is pic from shipper before I got them..They look just as nice maybe even better now!
 
Mine beat the snot out of each other in a 125gal, so I'd recommend anything larger than that really. They really just body slam each other, their mouths are pretty worthless. LoL

Mine learned to eat NLS pellets pretty easily. Just put the NLS pellets in a container to soak with some frozen mysis and some fresh garlic. Took mine about two weeks to switch over. Fully pellets from then on. Sinking though. ;)
 
Peanut_Power;4979650; said:
Mine beat the snot out of each other in a 125gal, so I'd recommend anything larger than that really. They really just body slam each other, their mouths are pretty worthless. LoL
Click to expand...

Even at 4", though? I thought I'd be able to wait a bit before upgrading the tank. :(

I emailed Dr. Wayne Leibel about them yesterday and he wrote back saying that he'd never had aggression issues with his groups. He suggested I either add a ton of PVC pipes to the tank and give them places to hide, or go the opposite direction and remove everything except the substrate to get rid of territory markers. I don't know what I'll do yet.

Their mouths can't be too useless... one has marks all over its body and all of its fins are split really badly. The dominant fish in the group has perfect finnage with streamers starting, but the other two are all ripped up.
 
I figured I'd make a video for you all. It's been a few weeks since I updated you.

As you can see, they've put on a little weight and don't appear as "wobbly" as they did the first time I showed them off. The video is dark because they are skittish when I turn the tank lights on, but when they're off, you can see the fish really go at it. This is how it is all the time when I'm not in the room.

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I'm not so concerned about the two who are going at it, but the third fish that you can see kind of hanging motionless near the top of the tank. He eats well, but as soon as the food is gone and the aggression starts again, he goes into this "fetal position" and tries to be invisible. :ROFL: Poor guy.

I have two more Chaetos coming next week, so who knows if that will make it worse or cool it down.
 
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