Tatauaia aggression?

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mynheers_a_pint

Candiru
MFK Member
May 4, 2008
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United Kingdom
Ok, new one by me.

After this mornings shenanigans, I have been watching the tank closely and have spotted new behaviour i hadn't expected.

My 10" Tatauaia has developed something of an attitude and is now striking/snapping at the sides of the Geophagus and chasing them away. Bearing in mind, everyone says that these guys are 'fragile' I wasn't expecting it to be gonig on the offensive. The Geo's are not as long but are far more deepset so in terms of mass, they are certainly larger.

I understand Armatus to be quite the evil swines but has anyone ever noticed this kind of behavious from a Tatauaia?
 
mynheers_a_pint;4128028; said:
Ok, new one by me.

After this mornings shenanigans, I have been watching the tank closely and have spotted new behaviour i hadn't expected.

My 10" Tatauaia has developed something of an attitude and is now striking/snapping at the sides of the Geophagus and chasing them away. Bearing in mind, everyone says that these guys are 'fragile' I wasn't expecting it to be gonig on the offensive. The Geo's are not as long but are far more deepset so in terms of mass, they are certainly larger.

I understand Armatus to be quite the evil swines but has anyone ever noticed this kind of behavious from a Tatauaia?
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I've been trying to build a shoal of tats for over a year now but the most I've been able to amass so far is three.The biggest of them took a dislike to the smallest and killed it a while back.I'm down to the two now and I can't seem to find any more for sale.The bigger tat now pushes and snaps at the other one but it ignores the other fish in the tank.
 
I had a pair but the smaller of the two was killed by the one i have now. I also tried Raphs and they were killed by him as well.

It's chasing the Gold wolves as well!

Another thing i've noticed is that it shed a tooth a few weeks ago but it still hasn't been replaced. It hasn't easten during this time and I'm a little concerned...
 
Now the gold wolf that I had was a real beast in the tank,nothing would stand up to it...except the little Grammodes cichlid every now and then.My tats always cowered away from the gold wolf untill I removed it,in fact they kept very close to each other while the Dorado was in there as well but after that was removed,they started to move around and assert themselves.
 
once comfortable tats can become very territorial and aggressive

mine will bully anyone smaller then him
 
The Golds aren't wimps by any stretch of the imagination and are definately not smaller! I had never thought of them as territorial. I've had this chap for coming up to 20 months now and other than other silver fish, he's never been aggressive towards anything else.

Oh, and I just did a small feed and the Tat is trying to feed but the lack of a fang seems to be the biggest issue. He's snapping but not able to grip, though he did eventually take something that the wolves dropped so atleast i know he's fed.

Given the type of fish in the tank, he stands a respectful joint second in terms of dominance, along side the female Brasiliensis but waaaay behind the big black; nothing dares go near him..!
 
i wouldnt worry too much. tooth prob just got knocked out a little early, might take a few weeks to catch up

these guys are pretty tough and can go a long time w out eating....
 
vamptrev;4128173; said:
i wouldnt worry too much. tooth prob just got knocked out a little early, might take a few weeks to catch up

these guys are pretty tough and can go a long time w out eating....
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Good to know, though I hadn't seen it eat for nearly 4 weeks so I was beginning to get a little worried.

I would be interested to know if internal parasites could pacify/ cause lethargy in certain species? I have been treating for internal parasites with a very mild does of something (name escapes me but it's good stuff) on the introduction of most new fish as i don't have a hospital tank, and the aggression has only started since i started that.
 
My big guy 10" or so also had alot of aggression at times. He would control an area of the tank and no one was welcome...lol

But when he swam to different area's of the tank around the other fish (2 scombs,2 hujeta,4 rams, 1 charax gibbus) he showed zero aggression. But they also moved out of his way. His aggression was centered around one side or corner of the tank. He would do the jaw flapping or snapping but i never seen him strike anything. He would even act like this towards my 2 6" blue crayfish.

It was like his territory was a 15"x15" imaginary box. Because the hujeta's stayed mostly above him schooled together in the sumps out put line current and were not bothered until the swam down to his area.

I also learned with him that if i moved or added any doecor in his area that the aggression would stop completely for a while. But allways returned in a couple months.
 
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