Temporalis is a bully/scale eater...???

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NeptuneNY

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Mar 2, 2010
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6
new york
My 5-6" WC temporalis is the biggest fish in my 200G tank. When he was the only fish in the tank for a while he hid in a corner and barely came out. Now that he has company he chases and bites them. He def has a territory in one corner of the tank but will go after fish in their respective corners 7' away. I've seen him tear scales off my 3.5" severums and eat them.
I haven't seen them mentioned a scale-eaters anywhere. Is this a personality thing? Is he missing something from his diet? Does he need a friend his own size/species to keep him busy?
He is one of my all time favorites and I want to keep him happy...any ideas?
 
Cookie*420;4659720; said:
I cannot figure out what a WC temporalis is. Nothing shows up on any searches. Is it a Chocolate cichlid (Hypselecara temporalis) you are talking about?
Click to expand...

WC means wild caught, so I'm pretty sure he is talking about an H. temoralis
 
Ah, I see. I have a H. temporalis myself. Unfortunately, he is the only cichlid in the tank. He shares the tank with a 2" loach and 6" pleco. He does bother the pleco on occasion but does not bother chasing the loach. I have not read anything on them eating scales, and they are usually not too aggressive. Severums are also usually kept with Chocolate cichlids, I was even going to get some myself for my Chocolate.

What kind of diet are you feeding the fish? Have you included vegetables for vitamin C, such as skinned peas, romaine lettuce, spinach? Maybe try separating the fish in the same tank for a bit so they cannot get at each other. This may lower the temporalis' aggression, getting used to seeing the other fish but not attacking.
 
Yeah cookie its a wild caught H. temporalis... I dont feed any fresh vegetables but their diet is based on spirulina pellets and freeze dried plankton...and yeah they are regularly kept with severums and are considered mild tempered compared to other cichlids.
 
my guy gets ramdom mood swings for some reason...at times he totally ignores his tankmates and then like a switch flips in his brain he'll torpedo into one of them and take a nip
 
I wish I could be of more help, but I'm new to cichlids. My Chocolate is my favorite fish too, and I would hate to have to part with him. I would think getting him a female would draw his attention away from the Severums. If you don't plan on mating them, just let the fish eat off the fry. Do you have any pics of your fish? I would love to see them.

Here is a shot of mine about a month ago-

10-16-10 007.jpg
 
I have four wc chocalates and the larger male seems to be just like you described,they are only 5 inches and live in a 125 with several other fish(4 vieja regani 4",and 5 lysoni 5-6")all growing out to be moved into new tanks when they are big enough,But my chocolates seem to like pushing their tank mates around. The larger male will be on one end all by himself than for so odd reason will swim all the way to the other end just to nip and chase tank mates. I can only assume its the males that are more to the aggressive side. I have seen plenty with severums but i would not trust mine with severums atleast not the male.
 
i would not get him a mate that would just make him more aggressive, try separating them by some egg crate/light diffuser for a little while so he gets used to them being there and then totally rearrange the tank and take the divider out after 2 weeks or so and try again
 
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