I recently acquired a 14 inch Ornate for a super price. Too good to pass up I thought. He/she is a beautiful and meaty fish. I added it to my 150 that houses a 13 inch Giant Gourami, 7 inch Oscar and a 4, 5 inch tinfoil Barbs. I've proved driftwood cover and two caves for the Bichir to feel secure. It's been three days since it was introduced and I am noticing chunks of all the other fishes fins are missing. Perfect bite marks from the new resident. I just witnessed him doing a drive by pectoral fin grab on the Oscar. I know that Ornates are known to be a little aggressive, but had no idea it would be like this. From everyones experience will this subside or get worse? Any tips or personal experience stories appreciated.
Ornate aggression questions
- Thread starter KNMG
- Start date
I'm thinking about it! I just spent the duration of a beer watching the tank and it seems that he has zeroed in on the Oscar. That much space and he chills in a cave and then starts his chase. Maybe he will figure out he can't eat the fish and give up....I hope.
KNMG;3008270; said:
Years of live food will do that to ornates. I have a friend with a stunted 13-14'' ornate he has had for several years in a 29gal. (I know. I have yelled at him as well as tried to give him bigger tanks as well as fix his bichir diet).
His ornate will eat beefheart and other meaty foods but he works offshore 2weeks at a time and when he's gone he buys a bunch of comets for him to eat until he gets back. Over the years he has dispatched every single attempt at tankmates including but not limited to. . .
2 lg striped raphaels, plecos, SA cichlids, TSN and the feet off a 6'' mud turtle found dead after climbing unto a large floating piece of drfitwood ala crime scene style with a blood trail leading from where the turtle climbed out of the water in an attempt to escape.
But I have tons of huge adult ornates in my clients tanks packed with fish are they rarely attack any decently sized fish. But alot of them stuff their faces with pellets everyday or have an ungodly amount of baby yellow labs or psuedos around and just lounge about lazily slurping a few fry up lol.
I guess my point is hungry polys that are used to live food can do some serious damage. They have some serious teeth! You may wanna seperate him for a while to work on feeding him and get him fat so you don't end up with a fish missing a tail or something. The handful of bites on larger fish I have had occur (out of 50+ tanks) were pretty brutal. They can bite right thru bones and take a fishes tail completely off down to the fleshy parts where it wont grown back!
if you've never seen check out an x-ray view of a poly skull. crazy teeth!
my ornate snaps and grabs any fish that goes past him ,also deathrolled fish larger than its self , he killed his ornate buddy when they were smaller , think i got a rogue A Natural born killer
From all the searching I've been doing here and else where on the net I've read that Ornates can be pretty dicey. Sometimes they are fine and sometimes not so fine. It sounds like yours is exactly like mine. Unfortunately My Ornate is now gone. He didn't even make it a week in my tank before I evicted him. The sweet thing is that I got twice as much credit at the fish store than what I paid for him. I think that I'll get some little guys and let them grow up in the tank. This Ornate was previously in a tank all by itself. I think this had alot to do with it's aggression. After he stripped the dorsal fin on my Redtail Giant Gourami he was out.
I'm thinking the 14" Ornate is more likely seeing the 7" Oscar and 5" Barbs as a possible meal. I know those guys can grow fairly quick, so is it possible to separate the Ornate in the mean time?