Need stocking/aggression advice for established 125

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DaggerWulf

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Feb 19, 2012
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SF Bay Area
I currently have a 125 gallon tank with 2 green terrors (1 male + 1 female) who are not paired, 1 Firemouth, 1 green severum & 5 giant danios. The tank has been up and running for about 6 or 7 months now. Everything is going great besides the fact that the male gt is almost constantly chasing down the female gt and the severum (the Firemouth is second in command & just spends most of his time showing off his gills and giving everyone kisses lol). The severum i think is fine... He is about the same size as the aggressor but taller naturally. He is pretty calm and rarely gets stressed (mostly just during water changes). The female gt who is about an inch shorter than the male takes most of the beating. She is stressed more often than not and never gets a chance to heal her fins. I have tried making lots of cover and hiding spots, but that didn't help much. Ive tried re arranging and re introducing the male. I've also tried removing the female, but aggression just gets spread elsewhere.

Where can I go from here? Could I possibly add another dominant fish that could keep the gt busy/in check? With that option I would worry about overstocking my tank in the long run. I have 1 fx5 and one ac110 on the tank & am not totally sure of what I'm capable of stock wise. Or should i just relocate the female permanently and replace her with something else. Let me know what you guys think. I'm open to suggestions.




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It sounds like he is trying to make her breed. Try conditioning the female. Use high quality foods to encourage her to breed, a cool water change and an angled piece of stone should be enough. Always was for me. Failing that get another female GT. Adding other fish isn't the solution. It would likely be another fish to pick on the weak female. Another female will give him a choice to breed and can cause competition for the existing female interms of health, growth, breeding etc.

What sizes are the male and female?


And do not add any of the above, especially in quantities of 3.
 
Tyler2012 said:
It seems thAt you like chichlids so may be a dovii, or a jaguar, or peacock bass etc.
For quantity you could put in maybe 3 more fish

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No offense to Tyler but this extremely horrible advice. Don't listen to this whatever you do.

I would agree with Grant for the most part. Adding more fish probably would not help matters. Adding some decor and re-arranging it weekly may help ease aggression a little bit. If the cichlids are interested in chasing the danios at all, you could try adding a couple more of them as targets also. I have rainbowfish that serve the same function in my tank. When my cichlids start to posture at each other almost every single time a clown loach or rainbowfish will get in the way and stop the commotion dead in its tracks LOL
 
Bigger tank is the only real way to help aggression, or get rid of the aggressors.....




Go S. Vettel #1 rb8
 
I've had luck with running the tank at lower temperatures to chill them out, I keep my CA/SA tank at around 73-74 and works well to keep my guys from being to hard on each other just if your going to do this feed less as it does slow the metabolism down and if you feed too much they can get backed up and bloat easy.
 
well, a dovii would kill everything else. so no more GT problems. and the tank would be overstocked too.
;-)
 
clekchau said:
was this a joke? he really needs a bigger tank or rehome some fish, not add more fish
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lol dont worry, I know enough not to take him seriously. My buddy used to own a jag and Ive seen how crazy they can get. I was thinking more along the line of a jack dempsey or possibly an oscar. Seems that would still be too much though.

Love your tank btw, clekchau! I hope I can reach that level one day :)

Mr.dempsey said:
I've had luck with running the tank at lower temperatures to chill them out, I keep my CA/SA tank at around 73-74 and works well to keep my guys from being to hard on each other just if your going to do this feed less as it does slow the metabolism down and if you feed too much they can get backed up and bloat easy.
Click to expand...

Ok, I will give this a try. I have been keeping the tank @ 82 because they seemed to be more active with the warmer temps. Now I can see where this may be contributing the problem.

F1 VET said:
Bigger tank is the only real way to help aggression, or get rid of the aggressors.....




Go S. Vettel #1 rb8
Click to expand...

Unfortunately this is not possible for me. I'd love to get a bigger tank eventually, but thats just not possible right now. The terror is also my favorite and Id hate to part with him. I think hes gonna turn out awesome when its all said and done.

Psylant said:
No offense to Tyler but this extremely horrible advice. Don't listen to this whatever you do.

I would agree with Grant for the most part. Adding more fish probably would not help matters. Adding some decor and re-arranging it weekly may help ease aggression a little bit. If the cichlids are interested in chasing the danios at all, you could try adding a couple more of them as targets also. I have rainbowfish that serve the same function in my tank. When my cichlids start to posture at each other almost every single time a clown loach or rainbowfish will get in the way and stop the commotion dead in its tracks LOL
Click to expand...

I have tried the decor thing with minimal success... I think the problem is mostly that they are all similar in size at the moment. She or any of the others are not able to get anywhere he cant lol. As for the danios. They might as well be invisible. I had 7 at one time, but one of the smaller ones was eaten and another decided to commit suicide. I came home one day to find him on the floor covered in dog hair :duh: They are great fish though! I really love their colors and how active they are.

GrantA94 said:
It sounds like he is trying to make her breed. Try conditioning the female. Use high quality foods to encourage her to breed, a cool water change and an angled piece of stone should be enough. Always was for me. Failing that get another female GT. Adding other fish isn't the solution. It would likely be another fish to pick on the weak female. Another female will give him a choice to breed and can cause competition for the existing female interms of health, growth, breeding etc.

What sizes are the male and female?


And do not add any of the above, especially in quantities of 3.
Click to expand...

The male is about 5 - 5 1/2". He is just starting to grow his hump. The female must be close to 4 1/2".

Its also worth noting that I am unaware of the sex of both the severum and firemouth. Ive always assumed the firemouth may be male due to how ballsy he can be lol. Please excuse the pun ;)
 
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