Hey all,
So basically I had 4 juvies in a 2ft tank, but the largest one was way too aggressive towards its siblings, which presented two problems - it caused a lot of stress to them and two, it focused less on eating and more on chasing stuff around. Neither is what I want, because the former results in the other three growing slower and well, stress is always bad for a cichlid; whilst the latter means that the juvie isn't growing as fast as I want it to be.
So I decided to remove its siblings, but given that its a juvie and they do get scared whenever the giant hand reaches in to move anything around, or well if there's any large change, I was sure that the lone guy/gal would not react well at all to having its siblings removed, and being all alone in a tank i.e. most likely will hide all the time. There's a bubba Bristlenose in there somewhere, but it's basically completely ignored by... everyone.
Anyways given the opportunity, I decided to experiment a bit with dithers. I know dither can work well with large and/or adult cichlids, but was not sure of the effect it'd have on juvies due to a number of things - firstly, its size. Would it matter at all if there were fish swimming about? Or would the juvie, being a juvie, still be scared anyways when there's no siblings or even closely related species around. Two, what will happen in the long term, as the cichlid grows? Will it continue to ignore the dithers, or start chasing them (and perhaps eating them)? Fact is, the dithers can not definitely be the larger species or must not be large yet, or else it will eat the cichlid possibly.
Getting curious, I decided to experiment a bit.
I chose 5 Pacific Blue Eyes (Australian native) to add to the tank, to see what would happen. Their current size is about 3-5cm, so about the size of my juvie. They only grow to 7cm though. Here they are:
So I removed the three siblings, leaving my poor little fish alone. S/he was quite traumatized, by the giant hand + rearrangement of deco. Breathing heavy, gills and stuff flaring up and down. This pic shows how it lost all of its colors (this is after the dither was just added, it's still traumatized):
My past experience would indicate that the juvie would stay in this state for a bit longer, and then proceed to hide away for a while. However having added the Pacific Blue Eyes together, they adapted quite fast to their surroundings, and wonderfully, the juvie felt at home within a few minutes after the Pacific Blue Eyes calmed down.
Haven't taken a pic since then (been a few hours), but there was no hiding or the likes. Interestingly, the juvie seems to be out and about even more than before, as if it was so much more safer when there were fish of a different type out there.
However, what I am really interested in, and why I posted this, is that I want to see the long term effects. Many people would just keep juvie cichlids together (possibly along with other species of fish), which is fine and all, but what about for those who really just wants to keep their one single cichlid?
The last time I added a cichlid to a tank of guppies, I was sure the cichlid (a Festae) killed one of the males and ate it, but I did not really pay too much attention to that tank to really know. Didn't even know one male disappeared until days later.
So yeah this time, I thought I'd keep track of what happens as time progresses and the cichlid grows. Will it really help its growth? Will the juvie eventually eat the dithers (the Festae was fine with the guppies when it was 3cm, then the guppy disappeared as it hit 4cm)? Will adding dithers so early on actually be deleterious? Will the juvie continue to be as outgoing as it is atm? Etc. etc. I did try to search for info on good dithers for juvie cichlids, and there really wasn't much info at all.
P.S. Sorry about the bad photos. They were taken with my iPhone.
So basically I had 4 juvies in a 2ft tank, but the largest one was way too aggressive towards its siblings, which presented two problems - it caused a lot of stress to them and two, it focused less on eating and more on chasing stuff around. Neither is what I want, because the former results in the other three growing slower and well, stress is always bad for a cichlid; whilst the latter means that the juvie isn't growing as fast as I want it to be.
So I decided to remove its siblings, but given that its a juvie and they do get scared whenever the giant hand reaches in to move anything around, or well if there's any large change, I was sure that the lone guy/gal would not react well at all to having its siblings removed, and being all alone in a tank i.e. most likely will hide all the time. There's a bubba Bristlenose in there somewhere, but it's basically completely ignored by... everyone.
Anyways given the opportunity, I decided to experiment a bit with dithers. I know dither can work well with large and/or adult cichlids, but was not sure of the effect it'd have on juvies due to a number of things - firstly, its size. Would it matter at all if there were fish swimming about? Or would the juvie, being a juvie, still be scared anyways when there's no siblings or even closely related species around. Two, what will happen in the long term, as the cichlid grows? Will it continue to ignore the dithers, or start chasing them (and perhaps eating them)? Fact is, the dithers can not definitely be the larger species or must not be large yet, or else it will eat the cichlid possibly.
Getting curious, I decided to experiment a bit.
I chose 5 Pacific Blue Eyes (Australian native) to add to the tank, to see what would happen. Their current size is about 3-5cm, so about the size of my juvie. They only grow to 7cm though. Here they are:
So I removed the three siblings, leaving my poor little fish alone. S/he was quite traumatized, by the giant hand + rearrangement of deco. Breathing heavy, gills and stuff flaring up and down. This pic shows how it lost all of its colors (this is after the dither was just added, it's still traumatized):
My past experience would indicate that the juvie would stay in this state for a bit longer, and then proceed to hide away for a while. However having added the Pacific Blue Eyes together, they adapted quite fast to their surroundings, and wonderfully, the juvie felt at home within a few minutes after the Pacific Blue Eyes calmed down.
Haven't taken a pic since then (been a few hours), but there was no hiding or the likes. Interestingly, the juvie seems to be out and about even more than before, as if it was so much more safer when there were fish of a different type out there.
However, what I am really interested in, and why I posted this, is that I want to see the long term effects. Many people would just keep juvie cichlids together (possibly along with other species of fish), which is fine and all, but what about for those who really just wants to keep their one single cichlid?
The last time I added a cichlid to a tank of guppies, I was sure the cichlid (a Festae) killed one of the males and ate it, but I did not really pay too much attention to that tank to really know. Didn't even know one male disappeared until days later.
So yeah this time, I thought I'd keep track of what happens as time progresses and the cichlid grows. Will it really help its growth? Will the juvie eventually eat the dithers (the Festae was fine with the guppies when it was 3cm, then the guppy disappeared as it hit 4cm)? Will adding dithers so early on actually be deleterious? Will the juvie continue to be as outgoing as it is atm? Etc. etc.
I did try to search for info on good dithers for juvie cichlids, and there really wasn't much info at all.P.S. Sorry about the bad photos. They were taken with my iPhone.
