Sorry which part did he explain well? I like Jexnell and he is comprehensive, but there is no need for you to be rude Far2lively. I note occasionally these sites seem (though rarely) to be an occasion for some people to use their horns for road rage when I assumed these forums were to be informative and for a like comradeship.
Fighting
- Thread starter henry
- Start date
Oh the part about having more fish interplay. I was adding a footnote to his credit and actually admire him. He didn't expond on what he said. Future readers might read my post and not see his post (or visa versa) I just wanted all available prospective help scenarios out there to be tried in a post. I was in no way trying to detract from Jexnell, like him a lot. Gosh, now I feel bad when I was trying to help.
Correction:
I meant to say I didn't expond on what he said, he said it very well.
When as before you had many fish in the tank. Say you have one a@@hat fish. That fish has several fish to unleash his anger at. So no one fish would get picked on that much cause the a@@hat had soo many targets. Now that there are only three fish the a@@hat only has one or two targets. So naturally he is going to chase the one or two targets more so, even hurting the fish or outright killing it.
Yes, exactly right. Many moving targets. I had learned this while studying up before getting cichlids, as you know some subspecies can be very aggressive. So I got a group of them AND made caves for each one with extra caves. What I should have done was study up better on which subspecies are more super aggressive than other milder ones. But as we know there are more and less aggressive fish even within a subspecies. There are even rogue fish that go against type.
I always find your writing interesting and with class, Jexnell.
I always find your writing interesting and with class, Jexnell.
Simple solution would be rehoming/ moving to another tank the Aro. If not possible then go with a drastic rescape. Take the fish out and put them in buckets. Now change the scape in the tank as much as possible using things none of them have seen. Putting up sight breaks to limit how often they can see each other as Fishflayer mentioned. If you can change the background as well. Then add all the fish back at the same time using multiple people if you have to so no one has a territory, they are all in the same boat atm scared, in a new area.
You could go with a tank separator. Tho I don't think it would be best for the Aro long term. Stuck in just a 3x2foot space. Or could go back to the overcrowded state if you can find the right fish in the right size. Possibly if you have a friend into fish as well and could stash some fish there till the new big tank comes along and can permanently separate them yourself.
When it comes to Cichlids rearranging the tank or removing and then re adding fish is a temporary solution at best, the fish are intelligent enough to still recognise the tank and the room its in. Adding more cichlids can work with species that are communal, trying to do this with more solitary types leads to stressed fish which will never look there best and leaves them more susceptible to disease.
You need to think which fish you want and rehome the others.
You need to think which fish you want and rehome the others.
I had thought of a tank separater also. Not to discourage you Henry. I have tried these methods and in some cases they worked. In two cases they fish were just so hard wired to be predator super aggressors they just had to have their own tanks. I still try and will continue to change their tanks around and add a new tank mate of greater size but of not necessarily the same fighting demeanor, but can still hold their own.
Rehoming to someone else might change their behavior as they are introduced as a newcomer to an established tank with an established social order. One would think that your fish would retain it's fighting skills for defense.
I thought of rehoming my more aggressive cichlid to an acquaintance from the local hardware store (that's what I meant, that is where he works.)who has a large long established cichlid tank, but I thought my fish might decimate his tank. I had enough tanks going so I could rearrange my fish population and give one it's own tank and establish a new tank for the other.
I may try to add them (one or the other) to my large angelfish and large Senegal tank, though I have read not to mix Senegals with aggressive fish.
