what is your philosophy on aggressive fish together?

[blacklabel]

what I mean is, say you are growing out a group of various central/sa cichlids with the intention to keep a group of them in one tank. I have always thought it better to keep the most aggressive and remove the ones that cant hold their own.

but now I'm considering removing the most territorial and keeping the ones that don't seem to have (as much) territorial aggression.

which method to you think has the best chance for success long term, and why?

 

[follen]

Both can work or fail. In my time I've tried every cichlid combo going it's trial an error I have found 4 plus cichlids work in a comm 3 or less the dominant one will tear the others apart


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[Crazy mike]

The second method has always worked for me. The most territorial ones will eventually decide either they want to be alone or just fight each other all the time and stress out

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[follen]

Every time I've removed the dominant fish there's always a young upstart ready to step into his shoes. Although aggression levels do drop


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[duanes]

I find unless you are willing to provide a truly realistic space (minimum 300 gallons), keeping territorial/aggressive cichlids together more often than not, is an exercise in futility.
Of course there are exceptions, and sometimes it works temporarily until one hits its stride.

 

[follen]

Literally I had a nice comm moved a few fish out left a jag an I an a veija in there 3 days later the jag has become much more aggressive with less fish


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[ehh]

I don't mind keeping a single fish in a large tank. It's less stress for them and less stress for me(most importantly for them).


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[jiant2520]

I usually take out the most aggressive fish... each fish is different tho. If you can get lucky and find that "boss" who is 100% the leader of the tank, but does not need to destroy the other fish, I think keeps all the others in harmony. My old Festae was like that.

 

[Crazy mike]

I usually take out the most aggressive fish... each fish is different tho. If you can get lucky and find that "boss" who is 100% the leader of the tank, but does not need to destroy the other fish, I think keeps all the others in harmony. My old Festae was like that.

That's how my current Managuese is. Hoping my Blackbelt is the same way

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[jiant2520]

That's how my current Managuese is. Hoping my Blackbelt is the same way

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Nice!! Right now my Trimac is taking the top of the pecking order and he has been a bit crazy lately... I hope he chills out some!! Good luck to you.

As for the original post... I have taken out the most aggressive fish and then the next fish in line (who didn't seem too aggressive) becomes even worse than the one I removed. It really is trial and error... I still feel that removing the most aggressive is better then taking out the least aggressive.