Fish protecting other fish?

[LBUK]

Hello.
This may sound far fetched or may have a better explanation to whats happening but I was wondering if anyone has experienced anything similar.

I have a 10"JD, 7" Aequidens Diadema and 4 4" Silver Dollars in my tank and the male Aequidens is an absolute **** house it spends all of its time trying to kill anything other than the JD it already killed its female partner and some other silver dollars we kept. Over the past few weeks my JD is always following the Aequidens when he is stalking other fish and always gets between the Aq. and the Silver Dollars and splits them up. He never goes for any Silvers himself just always blocks the Aq. path. Has anyone ever had anything similar? It hasnt just happened once or twice its three or four times an hour.

 

[tlindsey]

Hello.
This may sound far fetched or may have a better explanation to whats happening but I was wondering if anyone has experienced anything similar.

I have a 10"JD, 7" Aequidens Diadema and 4 4" Silver Dollars in my tank and the male Aequidens is an absolute **** house it spends all of its time trying to kill anything other than the JD it already killed its female partner and some other silver dollars we kept. Over the past few weeks my JD is always following the Aequidens when he is stalking other fish and always gets between the Aq. and the Silver Dollars and splits them up. He never goes for any Silvers himself just always blocks the Aq. path. Has anyone ever had anything similar? It hasnt just happened once or twice its three or four times an hour.

I have read some others claiming the same stories of a fish protecting others from a bully fish. I believe the Jack Dempsey may just be letting the Aequidens Diadema know ok your in my territory.

 

[A201]

Sounds like the JD is the "Tank Boss" aka "Disruptor". His behavior is common in a Cichlid community and is especially evident in a crowded African Cichlid tank. Like Mr. Lindsey noted, it's a territorial dominance behavior. If a commotion arises in the Tank Boss's territory, he gets in the middle of it. The subordinate fish yeild to the dominant one & seperate.

 

[krichardson]

Yep,years ago I had a bunch of different types of cichlids and every time a squabble would break out my Tanganyican tilapia would chase them around for a few minutes to get their minds off of fighting each other.The tilapia was the "tank boss" and a big blue beautiful beast.

 

[Zanzag]

My blue acara male does the same thing whenever one of my cons or my firemouth is being an a-hole. Just kinda extends all fins and slow rolls into the middle of it and they scatter.

 

[LBDave]

Like Krich mentioned. It may be fairly common. Right now there are times my pbass will swim up when my oscars squabble. One thing I do know, the fish are very aware of the other fish in the tank and their personalities. An example. I have one oscar that seems to get in squabbles a bit with the others. They all get into it but Teddy takes the cake for getting into squabbles. The pbass knows this and will swipe at Teddy now and then. Luther does not take kindly to gill flaring right near him.
If a few oscars are getting aggressive with each other the pbass usually swims up to see what's going on. The oscars then divert their attention the big bass who is butting in.