Dat aggression, timidity & NGD

[Sundew]

I see a lot of photos on MFK showing multiple datnoids housed together. I recently bought 2, 1.5" babies (Indos, I think) and put them into a 10 gal. quarantine tank. All went well for a few days then, I noticed one was dominant and the other not eating, so now they each have their own 10. I guess what I am asking, is there a threshold number of dats you have to keep in a tank to minimize aggession, and if so, should you then have them in a mostly bare tank so they can't set up territories? Also does anyone mix the species or are they best kept seperate?

After seperation, they seemed to become very timid hiding most of the time, mainly because they are in a fish room type environment where most of the day all is quiet until feeding time. So I added 5 black tetras to each tank for activity and now they come out more.

Lastly, has anyone had much experience with the New Guinea Dat? Really like the look and color of that species but have never seen a live one. Thanks.

 

[islander671]

I see a lot of photos on MFK showing multiple datnoids housed together. I recently bought 2, 1.5" babies (Indos, I think) and put them into a 10 gal. quarantine tank. All went well for a few days then, I noticed one was dominant and the other not eating, so now they each have their own 10. I guess what I am asking, is there a threshold number of dats you have to keep in a tank to minimize aggession, and if so, should you then have them in a mostly bare tank so they can't set up territories? Also does anyone mix the species or are they best kept seperate?

After seperation, they seemed to become very timid hiding most of the time, mainly because they are in a fish room type environment where most of the day all is quiet until feeding time. So I added 5 black tetras to each tank for activity and now they come out more.

Lastly, has anyone had much experience with the New Guinea Dat? Really like the look and color of that species but have never seen a live one. Thanks.

the babies seem to fight alot, try giving them hiding places or something to break the line of sight.
As for the NGT, if aggression is a concern of yours, be cautious of these guys as they can be quite aggressive toward other Dats and occasionally other fish (in my exp fish with stripes). I recently had a 3.5 inch NGT nearly kill a thinbar that was about 6 inches or so.

 

[Miguel]

And when does that agression end? Because I also wonder, on seeing so many mixed together, of various sizes...?

 

[DiXoN]

its funny as when you have a couple same sized dats they fight a lot, get more and the agression is shared.
keeping different sizes seems different, i have no problems with fighting with my 2, we will see what happens on thursday when i add another though.

 

[Sundew]

its funny as when you have a couple same sized dats they fight a lot, get more and the agression is shared.
keeping different sizes seems different, i have no problems with fighting with my 2, we will see what happens on thursday when i add another though.

A friend in Miami had 4 WBDs, 2 about 10" and 2 at 2 and 4". The large ones may be male and female since they get along fine. The smaller two started out the same size but one quicky outgrew the other, even though both were getting food. He gave me the larger one and, presto, the little one jumped up in size! I had it for about a year until last summer a lightning strike shorted out the controls on my titanium heater and cooked it and a Polyp. ornatipinnis overnight. I miss it, it was a nice fish. To make it worse I should not have even had the heater plugged in since it was summer in an outbuilding fishroom in Florida and we are the lightning capital of the U.S.!

 

[sQwiReL]

i have plenty of dats (NNT, indos, NGT, CT) ranging from 1"-5" (maybe some a little smaller than 1") and they seem to be all doing fine. actually the bigger ones tend to hide out more and the smaller ones are a lot more active begging for food constantly. they chase each other here and there within the smaller dats. i just assume they are playing with each other, just like many other baby animals. just keep an eye out and watch for very aggressive play, but other than that i dont see any problem with a lil rough play.

 

[KenyanSandBoa]

the babies seem to fight alot, try giving them hiding places or something to break the line of sight.
As for the NGT, if aggression is a concern of yours, be cautious of these guys as they can be quite aggressive toward other Dats and occasionally other fish (in my exp fish with stripes). I recently had a 3.5 inch NGT nearly kill a thinbar that was about 6 inches or so.

I agree. That's what I did with my dats. They were starting to get nasty with each other, especially before feeding, so I packed a TON of plants in there with some driftwood pieces and all is well now.

There are occasional squables but it is only a fraction of what it was before.