dominate fish bullyn

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LilBabyEmma

Gambusia
MFK Member
May 26, 2009
675
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16
Morgantown
my blue dolpin is my dominate fish in my tank. And he just goes around biteing on other fish nipping fins, biteing them in there mouths and biteing off there scales. Is there anything i can do to stop him
 
You could remove him but another would just take over. What's the stock and tank size?
 
its a 55g they got plenty of swimming room. I took out the caves in the tank to make more open space they never used them anyways. Heres my stock
1 wc frontosa 5-6"
1 f2 frontosa 2"
1 lemon jake 4"
1 ahli 4"
1 bule dolpin 4"
1 borleyi 6"
1 milomo 2"
1 red empress 2"
1 red jacob 1 1/2"
1 albino sunburst 1 1/2"
1 gombie 2"
1 ele yellow 4"
1 female fire ob 3"
Im planning on getting a 55g for just the frontosa some time. My house will only fit a 55g or i would have a 125g
 
You have already been told by a few people that your tank is TOOOOO small for that stock list. You are going to start losing fish very soon if you do not get a bigger tank or remove some of those fish.

That Milomo can get to 10" and the Frontosas can get huge, in fact the only fish that is almost full grown is the Borleyi but the rest are all going to get bigger. The aggression is just going to get worse!!!
 
You took the caves out I would have left them there and added more....then again I don't keep Africans.
 
L~C~G;4279882; said:
You have already been told by a few people that your tank is TOOOOO small for that stock list. You are going to start losing fish very soon if you do not get a bigger tank or remove some of those fish.

That Milomo can get to 10" and the Frontosas can get huge, in fact the only fish that is almost full grown is the Borleyi but the rest are all going to get bigger. The aggression is just going to get worse!!!

Exactly!
I posted the same thing in your "bitten tails" thread. Remove the fronts, milomo, moori, red empress, borleyi and the female ob IMHO.
Focus on smaller haps and peacocks, there are plenty to choose from.
 
Blue dolphins get huge. Really, a 55 is too small. I had 5 of them in a 300 gallon. One was pretty agressive for awhile. He would chase the other dolplins and also harassed a Deep Water Hap I had (similiar coloration). Anyhow, I am down to 2 dolpins now. Both are 7-8 inches long and still growing. They have calmed down. The others that died did not appear to be attacked. But the point is, these guys can be territoral, get big and need lots of room.

You might have problems down the road with the Boryelli and the Red Empress, if they are both males. Mine never injured each other, but did spar amongst themselves for territory. Again, these get pretty big. Then again, they might get along fine. I am just telling you to watch them closely as the Red Empress matures.

So I guess my recommendation (sadly) is to get rid of the dolphin.
 
Get the 125 gal tank or get rid of some fishes. Really man I love overstocking but if you dont plan getting a 125 gal soon, you will have to get rid of the frontosas and milomos they will get huge! Remove the blue dolphin if he is still bullying your other fishes.
 
true that get a 6 ft tank .. They were actually hanging out in caves and that gives some time to rest and time to keep bullies out of the main stream water for a while.When the dominate fish takes that cave is the only peace they will have. What IS GOING TO HAPPEN ,>> those fish are gonna stress and get ich etc, your gonna lose them all to disease if you don't make a change.
 
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