Help with my CA cichlids

[jworth]

tank is a 125. not all of these fish are permanent but a lot will be.

10" Xilo
6" Melanarus
5" Carpinte breeding pair
8 x silver dollars
several 2-3" misc CA cichlids

The xilo chases but doesnt try to do any damage. that can be expected. the melanarus is trying hard to kill the carpinte female and the male and female do not want to be anywhere near each other and try to fight when they are near. they have all been together for only 24 hours and show no signs of stopping. I have removed the Melanarus for an hour and added him back, no luck. Dithers seem to have no effect. territories are not being established they are just chasing all over the tank. Thoughts?

 

[flowerpower]

-Remove all decorations (w/out any territory to claim there's nothing to fight over),
-Change everything,
-Add caves for the smaller fish,
-Add 2 dividers and separate the tank into 3 parts,
~or~
-Slowly drop the temp (all of those fish should tolerate 72 degrees).

 

[jworth]

-Remove all decorations (w/out any territory to claim there's nothing to fight over),
-Change everything,
-Add caves for the smaller fish,
-Add 2 dividers and separate the tank into 3 parts,
~or~
-Slowly drop the temp (all of those fish should tolerate 72 degrees).

Thats a good idea. I wont be adding dividers as this is in my living room and is more of a 'show' tank. I did drop the temp. that is one thing i hadnt thought of and tried to rearrange quite a bit in order to 'set-up' more territories so they have an area to claim and not just chase everything around. There are good hiding spots for the little ones, but nobody messes with them. I will try to post a video of the tank after a bit.

 

[flowerpower]

Good luck, can't wait to see the vid.
One last idea:
Send me the xilo!

 

[jgentry]

I don't expect anything will really stop the attacks. With larger aggressive fish in a midsized tank you really just have to get lucky with tankmates. Some will get a long and some won't. Some will get along for a little while and the all hell breaks loose.

Maybe you will get lucky and find a combo that works. Good luck!!

 

[jworth]

I don't expect anything will really stop the attacks. With larger aggressive fish in a midsized tank you really just have to get lucky with tankmates. Some will get a long and some won't. Some will get along for a little while and the all hell breaks loose.

Maybe you will get lucky and find a combo that works. Good luck!!

makes me just want to go SW my wife keeps urging me and I keep resisting. SA didnt work out and CA are mean SOB's. Ill work on the vid ASAP.

 

[flowerpower]

Wait! Did you dump all of your SA's?

 

[jworth]

Wait! Did you dump all of your SA's?

yes i did. hard water = unsatisfactory conditions. it was a tough decision. wish i had a RO unit.

 

[Jason_S]

I disagree with jgentry only because the xilo and melanarus came from me and I raised them from 2" to their current size so I am familiar with their personalities.

The melanarus was a little feisty at times and would chase around other fish that he didn't much care for, but he usually chilled out after a day or 2 and then left the other alone. I would add a lot of clay pots, plants etc to create multiple territories and broken lines of sight. IME with the xilo and the melanarus, once they find a small territory that is their own, they leave other fish alone except to chase them away from their respective territories. Neither have ever killed another fish while in my care.

Your xilo always seemed to prefer the right side of the tank....I don't know why and I don't know if it would be the same since he's gone through the move to your tank...but set a clay pot to the right end of the tank and he might just take it over. I used 8" clay pots in my 125 and he was very happy with it. He actually claimed a rather small territory for such a large fish....he had maybe the far right 1/4-1/3 of the tank...which when you consider 1/3 of a 125 may seem kinda large it's really not when considering a 10" male xiloaensis.

let me know how it works out

 

[jgentry]

Every fish is different, but if those 2 were raised together you at least have a good chance of them getting along. My male xilo is not going to get along with anything in a tank that size though. As far as that goes none of my large really aggressive fish get along with anything in tanks that size. I use dividers for pairs if they are to rough or just 1 pair per tank and some dithers if they mostly get along.

I pretty much never have had large CA cichlids in a tank that size that fight and then stop fighting though. They stop fighting when one of them is dead usually. That is why I use a large pond for holding fish and keep only pairs in tanks.