Ways to Reduce Aggression in a ]v[onster Comm

[AnDr3w]

I would suggest a larger tank with the mixture of tankmates you already have especially if they are not playing nicely. I had a 2 inch Flowerhorn, and 2.5 inch Midas grown up together for about 2 years in a 300gal with a Black Aro, the Midas was about 13-14 inches when it killed the 10-11 inch Flowerhorn, none of the fish were fed live, large water changes each week, fed at least once a day usually two times a day. Are your Aro's getting along? I believe people usually recommend a group of around 6 Aros in one tank, usually in a very large tank. Also is the filtration you are using an undergravel filter? This might not be the best option for the size of fish you have. You might want to think of getting a larger tank or splitting the group up, you have a very likely hood as they get larger they will become more and more abusive to each other.

Split the group in two and buy another tank the same size or bigger. I no you didn't want to hear this but you knew it was coming. I'm not one of those "know it all's" or tank size experts and I'm not sayin your a bad fish keeper but it might be time for an upgrade. No bad can come from more space.

Also, MORE FILTRATION!! Cant get enough esp. when you have the crap producers you do
GL

 

[repair]

I don't know my 265 has a lot more fish and they do fine.

I would recomend not to have male and female of the same species..... that is the only problem that I have had.

Also as long as you keep on top of the water quality things should be fine. I find that more seems to be better.

This is less then half of the fish in this tank

 

[AnDr3w]

: o !

 

[Steve_89]

I chose tankmates that I know I will have a good chance of co-existing together.

When I consider the money I spend on some of my fish at the end of the day it just isn't worth risking something that might end in tradgedy.

Perfect example of this was when I purchased my monster Mangrove Jack. There was no way it was going in the 600...not a chance.

 

[JardiniBoy]

Thanks to repair, Steve and Wyldfya for the comments!

This thread is now starting to go the way I had wanted it to go. I'm basically trying to share my experiences in diffusing aggresion and see if there are any others that I'm not aware of.

I'm not looking for critique on my system/filtration etc. in this thread, that's why I didn't post details of that. No ... I don't have an underground filter and I'm aware that that wouldn't suffice for these fish. (I've got a 4' sump tank, IOS packed with biomedia, 2 coil denitrators, RDSB in progress)

There is very little aggression now in my tank. Until recently, I had a problem with my greenie beeting the cr@p out of my SR and both were looking terrible when I got back from the States. I added a strong powerhead to the upper level and I've been amazed at how well that worked ... both healing up nicely now.

I'll say again that I've had 2 deaths (from illness or aggression) in more than a year. The first was my fault ... albino knife that was too small. The second happened in this past week, one of my 4" clowns. This surprised me a little as I've had clowns in that tank longer than any other fish besides the parrot, and there's never really been any problems/deaths. I'll be moving the other 4 to my 75 tomorrow when I do my water change.

My fish in general are very active, don't show signs of poor health and look pretty sexy (well to me anyway) ... look to the left of this post for a good example.

Anyway .. back to the discussion. Any more ideas?

 

[Miguel]

No more ideas. I think you know what you are doing. I don't like overstsocking, but firmly believe that ( as is the practice for instance in malawi set ups , which i don't like ) overcrowding, with good water as a matter of course, reduce significantly, the agression levels...

also, tanks without territory references ( bare or almost bare ) help on that, imo.

M

 

[shanefish]

My fish are more aggressive when the temp. is up than if I lower it .

 

[aquanaut]

I don't know my 265 has a lot more fish and they do fine.

I would recomend not to have male and female of the same species..... that is the only problem that I have had.

Also as long as you keep on top of the water quality things should be fine. I find that more seems to be better.

This is less then half of the fish in this tank

AWESOME tank!

 

[repair]

AWESOME tank!

Thanks

 

[lemcc]

I find that more seems to be better.

But I am not so brave
I just sell who ever doesn’t get along

Before I sell a fish that’s not getting along well

1) I put them in a big net and leave them in the tank so that maybe they will get used to sharing space with others i usually have to repeat this 3-4x each time they stay in for 3-days

2) Hospital tank with another aggressive fish 1 week then back to community tank getting their butt kicked for a week softens up a bit

3) $$$$ there are plenty of fish that are willing to get along i no longer try to accommodate the ones who don’t

Once out of anger I thumped a red devil on the head after that he was Calm as a kitten (lobotomized)