dat aggression - serious?

[the_deeb]

I recently picked up 3 little indos (around 2-3"). Now that they've settled into the tank one of them has clearly become dominant and is pretty nasty towards the others. As soon as the other two start to swim around he chases them back out of sight. The tank has a lot of hiding places so they have somewhere to retreat to, but I'm still a little worried about them. Could he kill them from this sort of harrassment?

Do most dats show this kind of aggression against conspecifics or did I just get an unusually mean one? He also periodically takes swipes at my geos (which are a lot bigger than him).

 

[pwmin]

i have heard it's best to keep one or many. my AT and NTT get along fine together, though. just need to get more

 

[ettfettbranamn]

Dats are bastards generally.. they do however let go of the aggression sooner or later (2-6 days).. its imo about having the guts to ride it out.. you may kill your fish, you may succeed in keeping them together..

remember there are people far more experienced than me and you are sure to get better/more sure answers elsewhere..

 

[TCZeli]

it is unlikely that the dominate one will actually kill the other 2. They are in a new setting and they need to work out the pecking order.

If you have the room then its always good to get more, so the dominate one spreads the aggression a bit.

 

[BushFishRox]

they are all gonna die you better bag them and drive them to my house it is only like a 6 hour drive I think!!!

Nothing really bad will happen as stated they are just do a pecking order, my 4 just got over that today... hopefully but if there are just 2 then one of them might get hurt...

 

[the_deeb]

This is getting really frustrating. The biggest dat one was constantly chasing every other fish in the tank and getting progressively more aggressive towards the other two dats so I separated him.

I'm trying to decide if I want to sell him and only keep one of the dats. Does this aggression really work itself out? I liked the idea of having multiple dats but I don't really have room to add more than 3. As it was, it looked like I only had 1 dat, with the other two stuck in the corners/behind decor.

 

[TCZeli]

Is he doing any damage to the other fish?

 

[BushFishRox]

This is getting really frustrating. The biggest dat one was constantly chasing every other fish in the tank and getting progressively more aggressive towards the other two dats so I separated him.

I'm trying to decide if I want to sell him and only keep one of the dats. Does this aggression really work itself out? I liked the idea of having multiple dats but I don't really have room to add more than 3. As it was, it looked like I only had 1 dat, with the other two stuck in the corners/behind decor.

I think the magic number is 6.... I have some how managed to acquire that many over that last 2 weeks... and now there is very little aggression and what there is now is because I have stopped feeding frozen shrimp to my AT because I am trying to get him eating pellets and krill so he is grump since he hasnt been eating..