Just curious do people find less aggression with tanks with a lot of stone/wood in the tank for territories or with tanks with limited decor? Thanks
Tank set up and aggression
- Thread starter Charney
- Start date
I find that regardless of the amount of visual obstructions, a fish that wants to target another fish will do so. It is just quicker in a less densly decorated aquarium because the fish doesn't have to find and chase amongst the decor, decor is nothing but a delay to the inevitable IME. Once an aggressive fish knows that a target fish exists in its space then all bets are off IME, decor just gives the target a chance to hide for a while but it will be destroyed before long.
It works fine for territorial fish as there are clearly defined visual markers but it does nothing for outright aggression IME. However, I cannot say that it doesn't work for tanks over 5ft in length as this is the max I have had. It may work very well in much larger tanks than mine.
It works fine for territorial fish as there are clearly defined visual markers but it does nothing for outright aggression IME. However, I cannot say that it doesn't work for tanks over 5ft in length as this is the max I have had. It may work very well in much larger tanks than mine.
yeah like stated, it depends on the fish, but for the most part i find that when there are enough territories for everyone to claim a space and plenty of site breaks for them to get away from each other it tends to work better than just having an empty tank. but like cichlid2006 already said, if you have a fish that just absolutely hates another fish for whatever reason then it just delays the inevitable, but with normal, just territorial fish more caves/site breaks definitely help to curb aggression IME
I have a Midas that as far as Midas go is pretty laid back. He will chase my silver dollars from time to time but overall mellow. I recently added one small piece of driftwood to one side of my tank and he "claimed" this as his. He now has establish a no swim zone for the silver dollars and keeps them out of his area. Funny thing is he does not have an issue with the other smaller cichlids swimming into his "space". I should experiment and remove the wood and see if he mellows again. This is all in a 120g (60x18x16) tank. I will soon be moving everyone into the newly set up 210g (72x24x29) which might ease the aggression a little on the part of the Midas. So tank decor can have some bearing, I believe.
I feel that decor may help, but is not the end all say all. If you have aggressive fish they can and will fight and kill each other when wanted... decor will help IME, but is not 100%. I think that each fish needs to be evaluated by it self, yeah know?? If you have an beast... watch out regardless.
I haven't noticed much differance if a fish wants to go after another it will soon find it out. Larger tanks will curbs this though as it gives agressive fish some elbow room. I have seen agressive fish fight like crazy in a 125 then the same in a 600 gallon and the agression level will drop considerably.