Leopard Bushfish : not friendly to his own :( --> what to do!

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fishfiend

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jan 31, 2008
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Los Angeles, CA
Hi all,
I've been lurking aruond, and I've been admiring the scenery. Well, I've got a new-ish tank (been up 2 weeks, and it's cycled, thanks to bio spira).

So I've had a leopard bushfish in there, and he's always been hiding and looking really glum--so I decided to get another one to keep him company. I read somewhere that as juveniles (he's tiny) these fish can be friendly, but as they get older there can be territorial battles..

So in my 29g tank, I added another leopard bushfish. Both are almost the same size, teh new one is a tad smaller.. barely noticeable... I didn't want to pick up the bigger ones at the LFS for fear that my original one would be bullied--turns out he's the bully here.

So, since they 're both around 1.7-1.85", I was hoping the tank would provide them enough room.

Any ideas on what to do?? When I added the new fish, I did re-arrange the rocks and plastic plants, and did a WC--hoping to alleviate the stress and territorialism.

what I've been noticing is the older one will chase the new addition, or basically poke him. The newer one doesn't fight back, tries to run or plays dormant. And he looks miserable :(. But all these leopard bushfish have long faces. I dont' see the older one nipping at fins--and I haven't seen him actually bite, althogh he has opened his mouth, and also flared his fins.

The big question is: Return the new fish? Or should I just return both? I've got no QT to separate em. They're predators, so they don't exactly school, but I'm not sure what to do--I'd hate to have given the new fish the curse of being bullied his whole life in my aquarium :(.
 
First, get the smaller one a hiding spot.
Second, If the behavior continues, you may have to get rid of one.
 
Do they have any other tankmates?
If not, you could put in some danios or other fast moving fish to distract the bigger one.
That should work.
 
There's an african brown knife, 6 red tail wag platies.

The aquarium mates do help disperse teh aggression... I was watching earlier, the meanie wanted to lunge at the newbie, but the newbie was so hidden in the fake plants, and a platy was hiding behind him. So the meanie couldn't reach without disturbing the platy--so he basically left the newbie alone...

wierd drama.. Hoping this works out tho
 
the plan was to have a buddy for the first one. seeing as the first guy looked so forlorn and lurked around, shy and all, i wanted him to have friends.. turns out he's a bully :( The hope was that the first leopard bushfish would have a buddy, keep him company... Such is not hte case
 
fishfiend;1505562; said:
the plan was to have a buddy for the first one. seeing as the first guy looked so forlorn and lurked around, shy and all, i wanted him to have friends.. turns out he's a bully :( The hope was that the first leopard bushfish would have a buddy, keep him company... Such is not hte case
Click to expand...

unless it's a fish that is a schooler, most fish don't need 'buddies', which is a pretty anthropomorphic quality to give to fish.
 
You could try rearranginging the tank and making sure it contains several thickets of plants.
 
guppy;1507778; said:
You could try rearranginging the tank and making sure it contains several thickets of plants.
Click to expand...

:iagree:

That's what I did with my ctenopomas. I set the tank decor up in a U shape, with very dense planting and drifwood caves and crevices on each side, some plants visual barriers in the middle, and open swimming area in front.

To this day they will have little squabbles, but it's nothing to worry about. Just rearrange the tank and puts LOTS of plants in there.
 
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