I have a very large flowerhorn, about 12-13 inches not including tail, and he must have a heart. Here is the story.
I had some butterfly cichlids a while back, african butterfly cichlids, not to be confused with the bolivian ram sometimes called the butterfly ram. Anyway, I had bought 5 of them off a guy who had mistakenly bought them thinking they were, guess what, bolivan rams. He gave them to me for 10 bucks for the 5 of them and I happily took them home with the hopes of breeding them.
These fish were more aggressive to each other than bettas. I had them in a 29 gallon tank and they would kill one another off almost every week (they were maybe 2 inches). I had 2 left and I moved them to a planted 10 gallon with my male bolivian ram. There was a dominate one and a submissive survivor, I could hear the dominant one sometimes hitting the glass if he missed the charge at the sub dominant one. I just kept them in there until recently I decided to just put them in with my 75 gallon flowerhorn to let him take care of them both painlessly and get a meal out of it.
This is what I found strange. He killed (ate the head of) the dominant butterfly, but he doesn't care for the weaker one AT ALL.
It has been 2 weeks in the tank and the little guy is recooperating and best friends with the flowerhorn. He has a PVC hiding spot in the tank, and he eats the food that comes through the flowerhorn's gills. There is no aggression towards this one, and I think its because the flowerhorn doesn't see it as competition, and it doesn't need it for food. He still comes to the top and begs for pellets every morning and night. The little butterfly sits in his big 75 gallon tank with the flowerhorn that freed him from the clutches of the big bad butterfly.
That flowerhorn is the most compassionate fish (at least flowerhorn) I think I wil ever see in my life.
But I want to draw a conclusion from this too. Coudl it be said that cichlids only compete if there is 1.) need to compete for food, etc. or 2.) if there is some sort of competition between similar size/sexed or dominant fish
It seems in my 125 that the smaller cichlids would compete for the little hiding places, but the big guys wouldn't bother them because they couldn;t fit in the small hiding places anyway.
Anyway, hope you enjoyed that anecdote. Now back to writing my research paper
.
I had some butterfly cichlids a while back, african butterfly cichlids, not to be confused with the bolivian ram sometimes called the butterfly ram. Anyway, I had bought 5 of them off a guy who had mistakenly bought them thinking they were, guess what, bolivan rams. He gave them to me for 10 bucks for the 5 of them and I happily took them home with the hopes of breeding them.
These fish were more aggressive to each other than bettas. I had them in a 29 gallon tank and they would kill one another off almost every week (they were maybe 2 inches). I had 2 left and I moved them to a planted 10 gallon with my male bolivian ram. There was a dominate one and a submissive survivor, I could hear the dominant one sometimes hitting the glass if he missed the charge at the sub dominant one. I just kept them in there until recently I decided to just put them in with my 75 gallon flowerhorn to let him take care of them both painlessly and get a meal out of it.
This is what I found strange. He killed (ate the head of) the dominant butterfly, but he doesn't care for the weaker one AT ALL.
It has been 2 weeks in the tank and the little guy is recooperating and best friends with the flowerhorn. He has a PVC hiding spot in the tank, and he eats the food that comes through the flowerhorn's gills. There is no aggression towards this one, and I think its because the flowerhorn doesn't see it as competition, and it doesn't need it for food. He still comes to the top and begs for pellets every morning and night. The little butterfly sits in his big 75 gallon tank with the flowerhorn that freed him from the clutches of the big bad butterfly.
That flowerhorn is the most compassionate fish (at least flowerhorn) I think I wil ever see in my life.
But I want to draw a conclusion from this too. Coudl it be said that cichlids only compete if there is 1.) need to compete for food, etc. or 2.) if there is some sort of competition between similar size/sexed or dominant fish
It seems in my 125 that the smaller cichlids would compete for the little hiding places, but the big guys wouldn't bother them because they couldn;t fit in the small hiding places anyway.
Anyway, hope you enjoyed that anecdote. Now back to writing my research paper
.