So I have 4 flier cichlids(centrarchus) in 29 gallon tank and i have been waiting for them to pair up. Recently in the last couple of months the aggression between these fish has gotten ridiculous. I tried adding a convict which quickly bullied the more passive fliers. I tried adding some buenos aires tetras from petsmart but they died within a day(not surprised). I have ordered some large wild strain mollies to serve as dither/target fish to keep my big male occupied and hopefully help keep the aggression down. Do you think this will work? The tetras worked for a while so I am hoping it will. My smallest fish is taking quite a beating and I am worried. She gets bullied by all the fish and if she leaves one fishes territory she is bombarded by another. Any comments?
flier cichlid conspecific aggression
- Thread starter rrcoolj
- Start date
Your are just going to have dead mollies. That tank is only big enough for one compatable pair of centrarchus. You need to remove the other 2 and just keep one pair. I sincerly doubt you will be able to keep anything else in there other then one pair without beatings and casualties. I can't even keep BN pleco's in my cryptoheros breeding tanks.
There is no pair yet I am waiting for the fish to pair off. So far there are just 4 centrarchus. Good to know about the mollies though. I thought I would be able to move them into a 55 gallon and i could keep a pair with the mollies but I guese not.
My question is how can I keep the aggression down while I wait for them to pair off?
My question is how can I keep the aggression down while I wait for them to pair off?
rrcoolj;4165474; said:
They are not likely to spawn in that type of setting. They do not pair or spawn nearly as easily as convicts or some of the others. You might eventually get a pair doing it how you are but I think you would be better off sexing them and just keeping the best male and best female in there.
jgentry;4165651; said:
Here's the problem, i have a good idea of what the males and females are and would have no problem removing excess fish but wouldn't the female just get beat up real bad until they eventually pair off? Plus I thought it was better to let them select thier mates? I haven't bred cichlids in forever so i am a bit of a noob.
rrcoolj;4166060; said:
In most cases yes, but you tank isn't big enough to really give them enough territory to pair off. Many other cichlids probably would no problem. Centrarchus for what ever reason (in my experience at least) do not seem to bond, pair off, or breed with many other fish around unless there is a lot of space. Put in plenty of cover and the female should be fine.
Thanks both of you for your advice. Nobody keeps centrarchus so few people are there to help. I will remove the excess fish and keep the supposed male and female in there until they pair off. I added some fast moving haps to the tank and that seems to have helped alot. All the centrarchus are now out and about. At first the centrarchus were giving the haps a hard time but the faster haps began to fight back using thier speed as an advantage. Of corse this is temporary but I think it will work for now. I am going to add the mollies when they come also. I have seen mollies kept in CA tanks very will even with larger fish like jack dempseys, salvini, and bocourti(not sure if I spelled that right)
PS: I had them in a 55 but they were still a pain in each others but. Same exact behavior in the 29 as the 55. They will be moving back into the 55 or atleast to a 30 or 40 but most likely they will go in the 55.
PS: I had them in a 55 but they were still a pain in each others but. Same exact behavior in the 29 as the 55. They will be moving back into the 55 or atleast to a 30 or 40 but most likely they will go in the 55.
Well I haven't had the trouble that you have had but I just got this pair of Fliers last weekend. Male is about 6-7" female about 5-6". These fish are very active and very pretty. GL with pairing them off. Here are some pics that I thought I would share and sorry for high jacking your thread 
. Still a little stressed.
Male
. Still a little stressed.Male
He looks great. my dominant male is nealry 4in. Since we are sharing pics here is one of him. This is when he was smaller.
I left the M and F who I thought were closely matched. So far there is alot of flaring and something close to lip locking but nothing yet.
I left the M and F who I thought were closely matched. So far there is alot of flaring and something close to lip locking but nothing yet.