Texas agresssion
- Thread starter Urgula
- Start date
It may work, assuming this chocolate isn't much larger than the rest of the fish in that tank.
Your main problem will be that this fish was the one picked on in the last tank, so he may take a bit of time before realizing that he is now the biggest and baddest fish in this tank. So you will have to monitor the tank for aggression for say a week and be ready to move him out if he is chasing the other very aggressively.
Given he comes from a relatively peaceful species, your chances of success are decent.
Like many mentioned the tank is too small for anyone else.
Just enjoy Blue. I know your frustration as I am in a similar situation. I have a 17 inch giant gourami who grew up with a Paku, Oscars, acaras and now is the sole survivor in my tank (rest died of old age).
Cant add anything else in as he will just kill them and I won't give him away as he is family.
Well... the female is staying. Blue and Chocolate switched sides, now Mushechka (the female texas) and Blue act like they've been together forever.
They have 2 nests tho... Both digged by Blue. However, he does not chase her.
There was some mild poking when she got to his side, but now he's on her&chocolate side and there's no more poking (she pokes him tho, but he does not poke her)
Blue is way smarter than I thought fish could be. My divider was pretty good secured, tie wraps + heavy stuff to hold it on the bottom.
He digged, bent the divider and used a mug I had in the aquarium, to stuck it underneath to secure the damn divider, so he could get in and out. This was done in 2hs, while I was at the gym.
I work remotely recently, so they've not been alone in 2 months. I've re-started gym 3 weeks a go... before the 2 months, chocolate and the others were in quarantine.
Basically, the divider is gone terribly wrong and chocolate got way too much damage.
Chocolate is "retarded". He's super interactive with people, cuz always asking for food and acts like a puppy, but he can't figure out hiding spots (that I've provided plenty of) where he fits, but Blue doesn't...
He's been pretty bad for past couple of days and refusing food (he normally begs for food anytime he sees me moving).
Now he stays at the one spot he figured out Blue can't get in even if I've fixed the divider and secured more and Blue not trying to demolish it.
He now feeds at night time, when I turn off all light (still have some light from PC and an old "crater bubbles" that broke and only a red light survided).
I feed him before bed and when I wake up to go to the bathroom on the night or when I didn't gave pleco enough food before bed (he bangs the aquarium top till it opens, which makes lots of noise and wakes me up. Chocolate swims to the top when that happens. Normally I put cucumeber, lettuce and zuccini for the pleco before bed, however, since Chocolate stopped feeding at daylight, I no longuer do, so pleco alerts me when there's not enough "bottom" food)
This is trully a clusterfuck.
I've performed some fixing surgery on him, cuz the damage seemed to spread. It's not fin root, but still does not look good nor improving.
I'll be moving him to quarantine bucket.
Maybe I'll buy a 100L emergency tank tomorrow... yes, it's too small, can't house bigger and it's a ER hospital tank. Also, 100L is the cheapest "big" tank awailable in the second hand stores in the area. It's ok, cuz I don't plan to have a 6th tank. Each time I get a nice tank, it becomes a "pretty" tank and not "hospital/quarantine" tank. So I'm not getting a "nice" one.
Once he's started to grow back the fins, I'm moving him to the 500L (the owner agreed and I'm taking care of that tank anyways).
Anywaus... Blue is happy with his new "teenager wife" (she's super agressive towards everything now), however, my choise of stocking was retarded and I'll never trust a store person again.
The girl that sold me the fish, cares about them a lot, but I guess she gave up trying to explain stuff to people (there's also store policy that prevents them from caring for fish too much, u can clearly see it, specially with less smart employees... which is not great) and this is why I end up with a chocolate with texas in the same small tank.
... or this is why I end up with the fish of the size they are in the tank size they are...
They have 2 nests tho... Both digged by Blue. However, he does not chase her.
There was some mild poking when she got to his side, but now he's on her&chocolate side and there's no more poking (she pokes him tho, but he does not poke her)
Blue is way smarter than I thought fish could be. My divider was pretty good secured, tie wraps + heavy stuff to hold it on the bottom.
He digged, bent the divider and used a mug I had in the aquarium, to stuck it underneath to secure the damn divider, so he could get in and out. This was done in 2hs, while I was at the gym.
I work remotely recently, so they've not been alone in 2 months. I've re-started gym 3 weeks a go... before the 2 months, chocolate and the others were in quarantine.
Basically, the divider is gone terribly wrong and chocolate got way too much damage.
Chocolate is "retarded". He's super interactive with people, cuz always asking for food and acts like a puppy, but he can't figure out hiding spots (that I've provided plenty of) where he fits, but Blue doesn't...
He's been pretty bad for past couple of days and refusing food (he normally begs for food anytime he sees me moving).
Now he stays at the one spot he figured out Blue can't get in even if I've fixed the divider and secured more and Blue not trying to demolish it.
He now feeds at night time, when I turn off all light (still have some light from PC and an old "crater bubbles" that broke and only a red light survided).
I feed him before bed and when I wake up to go to the bathroom on the night or when I didn't gave pleco enough food before bed (he bangs the aquarium top till it opens, which makes lots of noise and wakes me up. Chocolate swims to the top when that happens. Normally I put cucumeber, lettuce and zuccini for the pleco before bed, however, since Chocolate stopped feeding at daylight, I no longuer do, so pleco alerts me when there's not enough "bottom" food)
This is trully a clusterfuck.
I've performed some fixing surgery on him, cuz the damage seemed to spread. It's not fin root, but still does not look good nor improving.
I'll be moving him to quarantine bucket.
Maybe I'll buy a 100L emergency tank tomorrow... yes, it's too small, can't house bigger and it's a ER hospital tank. Also, 100L is the cheapest "big" tank awailable in the second hand stores in the area. It's ok, cuz I don't plan to have a 6th tank. Each time I get a nice tank, it becomes a "pretty" tank and not "hospital/quarantine" tank. So I'm not getting a "nice" one.
Once he's started to grow back the fins, I'm moving him to the 500L (the owner agreed and I'm taking care of that tank anyways).
Anywaus... Blue is happy with his new "teenager wife" (she's super agressive towards everything now), however, my choise of stocking was retarded and I'll never trust a store person again.
The girl that sold me the fish, cares about them a lot, but I guess she gave up trying to explain stuff to people (there's also store policy that prevents them from caring for fish too much, u can clearly see it, specially with less smart employees... which is not great) and this is why I end up with a chocolate with texas in the same small tank.
... or this is why I end up with the fish of the size they are in the tank size they are...
There is nothing wrong with the chocolate, they come from South America where they inhabit areas with many other cichlids species, so are a more social, and less aggressive.
The Herichthys come from North America where there are few other cichlid species, so are in contrast, very territorial, with very aggressive temperament. They don't belong in the same tank with a mild mannered South American.
Most North And Centrl Americans will destroy South American's in short order in all but the largest tanks 300 gallons plus.
The Herichthys come from North America where there are few other cichlid species, so are in contrast, very territorial, with very aggressive temperament. They don't belong in the same tank with a mild mannered South American.
Most North And Centrl Americans will destroy South American's in short order in all but the largest tanks 300 gallons plus.
So chocolate has been healing pretty good. I've moved him to the 500L.
The parrot cichlid (male) does not like him and bosses him around, but the tank is larger, the parrot is slow enough and less dangerous than the texas.
I've setup a live stream, so I can watch the tank without sitting in front of it.
So far, it's ok (it's day 2).
Will see how that goes.
The parrot cichlid (male) does not like him and bosses him around, but the tank is larger, the parrot is slow enough and less dangerous than the texas.
I've setup a live stream, so I can watch the tank without sitting in front of it.
So far, it's ok (it's day 2).
Will see how that goes.
It's all good now. Not sure how to mark the thread as solved, nor where my last comment went saying it's all good now.
More fish won't work for a tank that size and I'm pretty sure, he'd kill anything weaker than him in any size tank anyways.
Chocolate cichlid has been fine in another tank for a month already.
Texas wants to breed with the female texas, who has grown a lot. Both go stipey and dig the same hole.
Pleco does not care.
