Serious fin nipping

[Alexkoj]

Hey guys, I have an endli, del, teug, ansorgiixendli, polli, lap and sen in a 120 grow out tank atm.

There is a serious nip/tail nipping issue. The endli is the boss and happens to be the biggest - snaps at and bites the tails of anyone who gets too close 24/7 - in fact, it actively seeks out the ansorgii hybrid to snap at its tail. The ansorgii hybrid's tail is quite damaged and I've since separated the two. The teug, on the other hand, loves snapping at the lap and the sen's tail, inflicting similar damage the endli caused to the ansorgii hybrid's tail.

So my question is, how do you avoid/prevent/discourage fin/tail nipping among polypterus? I've seen many a comm tank with polys of different sizes living in peace but my comm is a god damn free for all most of the time. Any thoughts would be most appreciated.

 

[kno4te]

More polys and bigger tanks with decor/plants/foliage will help. Other fish (mid water) to help distract.

 

[magpie]

He already has 7 polys in the tank... I respectfully disagree on that one. I don't know that more is the answer.

This is a tough one that many of us have dealt with. Some people say to change the decor up, some say to remove decor so there aren't spots to defend (like caves). And sometimes you just get jerk fish that are aggressive no matter what. :/ Many of us have had to rehome aggressive polys.

Can you post a pic of the tank?

What is their future tank and when are you upgrading? More space might help. Also I think I've warned you anyway about keeping the lower jaws with the sen and polli... you have to be careful keeping them together in the future no matter what due to size discrepancies as they grow.

 

[kno4te]

That’s a good point. I saw the first three lol. But yes ur right magpie there are 7. Should be enough.

 

[kno4te]

How big are ur fish Alexkoj ?

 

[FishBeast]

First of all, no surprises an endli is involved...

Something that helped in my case was to add more fish per the advice of DMD123 and have them just shake out the dominance issue on their own. I did remove all the decor for at least a month until everyone settled in. My endli now goes after only 2 other LJ (both laps) out of the 6 possible targets. Another option is to have a few midwater fish (in my case American cichlids) that have their own chasing/flaring heirarchy battles to distract the polys.

How big are they?

 

[tlindsey]

He already has 7 polys in the tank... I respectfully disagree on that one. I don't know that more is the answer.
P
This is a tough one that many of us have dealt with. Some people say to change the decor up, some say to remove decor so there aren't spots to defend (like caves). And sometimes you just get jerk fish that are aggressive no matter what. :/ Many of us have had to rehome aggressive polys.

Can you post a pic of the tank?

What is their future tank and when are you upgrading? More space might help. Also I think I've warned you anyway about keeping the lower jaws with the sen and polli... you have to be careful keeping them together in the future no matter what due to size discrepancies as they grow.

Totally agree may have to do or try everything that magpie has stated. Once received an wc juvie Endli and added in with 6 other polys and after 2 days the wc Endli started attacking a cb Endli. The attacks were hard to tolerate because the cb Endli tail and top finlets were shredded badly so removed and got rid of the aggressor. Also polys will do little or no damage even during spawning. I hope you resolve the issue very soon.

 

[DMD123]

My endli is very aggressive and nips at quite a few of the other polys. Here is my trouble maker/bully.

It was worse when the numbers were lower but now with five other polys she is actually spreading her love around more. She does still tear into the Koliba laps tail and for some reason side fins on the weeksii. She only nips at the others.

Here is her handy work. see the tail on the koliba?

Weeksii side fin

The other thing that has seemed to help is to keep them well fed. Pellets are okay but tilapia seems to keep them more content.

I found decor can have a bearing too. Seems like if the territory is really good, like a good hiding spot or something they feel they should protect they really can get mean to any passerby poly.

When I had the decor set up like this she was super territorial with her hiding spot, removing this helped a lot.

Just a couple things that worked for me. (besides a large tank, )

 

[Mighty Wizard]

I think the issue is that that lovely piece of driftwood there only really equals one hiding spot. If you provide one or more hiding spots per fish, the aggression levels should drop significantly.

 

[twentyleagues]

I have alot of hiding spaces and most of the time things are good. There is a girls only poly hide at the back of the tank if any of the boys invade the moke gets super aggressive and nips the tails badly. Lucifer my boy teug usually has a split tail, I don't think he gets it.