Distracting my GT (all his aggression goes towards one fish now)

[DaveB]

I've had a Gold Saum in a community tank for about 3 months now and until a week ago he was fitting in well. He got more aggressive as time passed but it wasn't too out of the ordinary. I'd see a fin nip here and there but it was a fair fight, as it'd go both ways with my distichodus. He'd chase the convict and a jewel occasionally but nothing too bad. Almost like it was just play.

Last week the dist. died though and ever since, he has focused all his aggression on Tyrone, the convict cichlid. It never stops. They got to move into a big new tank this week and it seems like it's even worse. It's not a territory thing at all... He's just chasing him relentlessly and now Tyrone just hides in a cave where the GT can't fit and never comes out.

The GT isn't going to stay in this tank forever, but it is going to be a few months before I can move him. He's about 4, 4.5 inches now. The tank also has a silver dat that's the same size, an IT dat that's much smaller, a bala shark his length, three giant danios, and a 9" lussoso. He stays out of the lussoso's way and never pays any attention to the danios at all. I kind of thought they'd be good dithers but I guess he knows he can't catch them so he ignores them.

Are there any suggestions on fish that could be added to make this guy leave Tyrone alone? It's stupid that I don't want to do the easy thing and just get rid of the 5 dollar fish, but he's been around for a while and I like his personality. Or did, anyway, before he started hiding. I've always had good luck with overcrowding tanks to reduce aggression but it'd take a lot to overcrowd this number-wise and that'd just be too much bio-load. I'm wondering if there's just something that can safely work as a dither or adversary for the GT to get his focus off the convict so they can at least inhabit different areas of the tank. I've seen a few threads mention firemouths - would they work? I know I could find them easily (though 3-4 inch ones might be tougher to get) and they'd probably look pretty good in there. There's another distichodus on the way too but he's just a baby and it might be a few months before he's ready to go in there.

 

[shamrock]

Cichlids are a funny fish-years ago I had an Escondido that would harass my smaller Red Devil this happened in a span of 18 months-I ended up giving my Escondido to my brother-got to pyscho-anyways a year passed and the Red Devil was pretty large so I decided to introduce a RT Trimac and Escondido that were all around 6 inches-the RD left the RT and Trimac alone but when he saw the Escondido he went insane and tried to kill it even when I fished out the Escondido, he tried to bite it through the net. Soemtimes a cichlid for some reason or another will have it out for another fish and no matter what you do or how large of a tank you have there really isn't anything you can do-you might have to part with either the GT or the Convict.

 

[Headrush]

a couple of questions first:

How big is the tank?

Do you have plants/rocks/wood to break up their line of sight?

I have a Large male GT (Gold Saum) in my 90 with a Big female JD and a male Firemouth. They do very well together, BUT i have lots of wood structure and they can easily pick a spot as a defined territory. What I'm thinking is that if there are no options Or not enough options for them to claim as a territory, then your GT may be trying to claim the whole tank or most of it.

I do water changes once per week and every time I change everything around. This way they spend the first couple days figuring out which spot they like best then stake a claim

IMO a convict is no match for a GT and probably will be in trouble once your GT hits 6-7 inches, as he wil be able to easily out-muscle the Con at any time.

 

[DaveB]

The convict is pretty big but the GT is already larger.

Makes sense about him trying to just conquer everything. I haven't set up the slate formation yet but in general I tried to keep a lot of open swimming space for the distichodus - clear across both the front and the back, and the only tall plants are right in the corners. There are only 3 spaces that one can really call territory and 5 feet of empty space in the upper middle. It's a 135.

In my other tanks I do what you do - lots of rockwork and frequent changes. I attribute my great luck with demasoni to this habit. I guess I wanted this tank to be mostly open and feature the fish. Which really just makes the GT a terrible fit. It's just odd that the con gets 100% of the aggression when there are other fish around. I guess I was hoping to distract him with several targets rather than give him a set territory (in the 90, which was much more busy, he was never partial to one spot either though).

We'll see. Maybe I can figure out a way to get him into his own tank sooner.

 

[AMG]

We'll see. Maybe I can figure out a way to get him into his own tank sooner.

That would definitely save you a lot of headaches.

 

[cichlid2006]

distractions may not work. he may be fixated on one particular tankmate. my GT was a big softies until i got a FM. he hated him and I had plenty of shiney fast dithers/targets. it didnt matter how many shiney barbs were in he still went for the FM specifically, he did not bother my gold sev or loisellei. I could not stop it. I gave it a couple of weeks but the FM ended up washed out so was obviously very stressed. sometimes dithers/targets dont work IME.
so now the FM is in my father in laws tank with 2 O's and 6 clown loaches.

 

[DaveB]

I don't know why I didn't think of this before, but what about just adding more convicts? I realize this might open the door to some other aggression, either between the cons, or from the cons out towards the GT and others, but I tend to think that everyone else in there can hold their own. (Then again, Tyrone used to chase the distichodus and even my AT. He was pretty relentless with the AT too. A year ago he was so mean to a geophagus (totally different tankmates back then) and a few other fish that I had to put him in a penalty box tank for a week. Funny how these things change so quickly.)

I've never heard of anyone keeping muliple male convicts... is that just a terrible idea? If I did like two pairs I'd probably end up with breeding (even without giving them pots and having predators around) and I don't want that... if they breed my girlfriend will get attached and we'll have to raise the fry. Waste of fry tanks.

Firemouths are a fish I always found pretty cool, so maybe rather than tempt fate with multiple cons I could just add a couple of those in.

I was gone for Memorial day and actually just got home tonight and Tyrone was out and about. He looked frazzled and a bit thin, but was swimming around. It was actually the jewel, who I moved in due to her aggression in another tank, that looks the most stressed, hiding in a corner. Maybe the GT is shifting his focus. Will just have to keep a close eye on things tomorrow. Looks like I'll be working from the bedroom instead of the office.

 

[TrikkyMakk]

How bad is the convict getting beat? I mean, convicts love caves anyways so it might not be that big of a deal. Also, rearranging the furniture in the tank can sometimes rearrange the hierarchy.

Is the Saum the biggest fish in the tank? Maybe he needs someone to put him in his place.

My convict, saum and dempsey all like to scrap but my midavil keeps everyone in check (it seems). The midavil is the badass in my tank. The convict the dither.

 

[DaveB]

The GT is the beefiest (but not longest) in the tank except for a 9" Lusosso. The GT and everyone else respect him and give him his space. He's not mean though. The GT is easily the meanest.

Today my AT (who is actually about the same size as the GT) is looking beat up, and the convict is swimming more freely. Weird. I got a few more plants and tried to build more caves and break up the line of sight by planting through the center of the tank more. We'll see how that does.

 

[Headrush]

sounds like you're trying the right stuff. At least you're taking some good advice and using it...refreshing

Anyway If you want to keep a lot of swimming room why not keep most of the structure (Wood, rock etc) on the bottom 1/2 of the tank. Then they'll still have the entire top 1/2 to swim freely. Best of both worlds maybe?

I'd put more cons in there because the GT will have that many more distractions. However I am not familiar with the Lusosso, and am not sure how he fits into the equation. I'd add more structure for sure because the tank sounds wide open and I'm sure the GT is trying to stake a claim, just based on what I see in my 90. I have one end open for swimming and my GT will claim that whole end plus 1/2 the wood structure for himself. Then the JD and FM are on their own to sort out the rest.

Good luck!!