bartman04 Posted December 3, 2011 Share Posted December 3, 2011 I have a relatively new all male peacock\hap set up with 5x2x2 aquarium with the following fish.Aulonocara baenschiAulonocara hansbaenschiAulonocara jacobfreibergi "Eureka"Dragon Blood PeacockTangerine PeacockSciaenochromis fryeriOtopharynx lithobatesMost of the fish are 2 to 3 inches except for the Tangerine which is a bit bigger and has a deeper body. He is the boss of the tank but didn't cause too much trouble until today. Normally he would chase most of the fish but not too far and not for too long but that's as far as he would go. Today I introduced a Aulonocara sp. "Stuartgranti Maleri" which was actually slightly bigger than what he is. The tangerine took an immediate dislike to him and proceeded to chase him. Long story short the chases lasted longer and longer with the end result being actual scale and fin nipping. I have 2 rock piles in my tank and I broke down the smallest one as this is the one that the Tangerine typically resides in but this made no difference. Tried to isolate the Tangerine to one end of the tank and capture him but he always evaded me and ended up at the other end where the other rock pile was still intact. In the end the new larger fish was cowering in the top corner behind the filter outlet so I decided enough was enough and removed the other rockpile so I could capture the bully. I got him pretty much straight away after removing the rocks and he is now in solitary confinement.So now I have 3 options:1. Leave him out for a couple of days or more then try him back in again.2. Get rid of him and get another Tangerine a bit smaller and hope that the new one isn't a bully.3. Give up on tangerines as they are just an evil aggro hybrid fish that will never behave. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishinf Posted December 3, 2011 Share Posted December 3, 2011 go with no 2if that fails go with 3 thats what id do Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lukeaaustin Posted December 3, 2011 Share Posted December 3, 2011 hey bartman,i love the idea of an all male hap display tank.... to me you have two options, one which might work short term and one that will work permanantly. you could try ripping apart the tank and rearranging the rocks, in essence the tank will no longer be 'his' tank. this will only work for a bit though as he is likely to rediscover the new rocks and dominate them too!the bulletproof solution in my opinion is to simply double or even triple your stocking level. in a 5x2 you could have 15 or 20 fish no problems at all. by doing this the aggression in the tank would be dispersed among the higher number of fish and the amount of stressed out individuals will be reduced.OR you could just get rid of the tangerine!!!luke. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Citypainter Posted December 3, 2011 Share Posted December 3, 2011 I didn't think Tangerines were hybrids.I thought they were line bred.An absense of a week or 2 can make a huge diference in an African tank.Allow the others to establish a new pecking orderI agree with Lukeaustin though that it would be good to add some fish. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bartman04 Posted December 3, 2011 Author Share Posted December 3, 2011 Thanks GuysWould love to add more fish but I live in Adelaide so it's slim pickings.All the fish I have are available in abundance but beyond that I am struggling to find much of anything else. It's not like I am not trying, I have been going from one LFS to the next trying to find some. One of the larger shops had a lot of Red Empress but they were right down the bottom and all looked silver to me so pretty hard to tell if any were males.So if anyone knows where they are in Adelaide let me know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scubasteve84 Posted December 4, 2011 Share Posted December 4, 2011 they had a male red empress at aggies Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
firthy13 Posted December 4, 2011 Share Posted December 4, 2011 originally tangerines were line bred, but lately i have been hearing of people crossing them with rubin reds and other brightly coloured peacocks to try and intensify the red colouration. so in my opinion, anything that isn't labelled with its full Latin scientific name is a hybrid. better safe then sorry.but yes i agree, up your stocking levels. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattrox Posted December 4, 2011 Share Posted December 4, 2011 And from what I have seen. Dragonbloods are just very red tangerines. Because of the similar colouration you may not get the bet colour from one or other. Your mileage may vary. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bartman04 Posted December 4, 2011 Author Share Posted December 4, 2011 they had a male red empress at aggiesI was thinking of going for a drive out that way on the week-end so will hit Aggies and maybe Fish Haven.Is there any others out that way worth looking at? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bartman04 Posted December 4, 2011 Author Share Posted December 4, 2011 And from what I have seen. Dragonbloods are just very red tangerines. Because of the similar colouration you may not get the bet colour from one or other. Your mileage may vary.Either way the Tangerine and the Dragon Blood that I have look different enough and showed very little interest in each other. The Tangerine was also starting to turn into a nice looking fish so it was a shame to have to remove him. He is sulking a bit in his 20lt solitary tank but he will get over it.I am more concerned about the new guy as he is still pretty listless and has lost a lot of colour. The Tangerine will not be going back in until this guy fully recovers if at all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattrox Posted December 4, 2011 Share Posted December 4, 2011 Last time I was in Aggies they had a few more mature Malawis in a tank with the Red Empress. definitely worth a look. Some Borleyis too if I recall correctly. I'd skip the second shop entirely, take a look at the pet shop in the bunnings complex. They have a good fish section, it's unpredictable what they have, but they do get some gems in occasionally. Worth the look while you are there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bartman04 Posted December 4, 2011 Author Share Posted December 4, 2011 Last time I was in Aggies they had a few more mature Malawis in a tank with the Red Empress. definitely worth a look. Some Borleyis too if I recall correctly. I'd skip the second shop entirely, take a look at the pet shop in the bunnings complex. They have a good fish section, it's unpredictable what they have, but they do get some gems in occasionally. Worth the look while you are there.Cool, I will check those two out on the week-end. Borleyis would be good as well, are they generally red or yellow coloured? I have seen pictures of both, either way they look really nice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattrox Posted December 5, 2011 Share Posted December 5, 2011 Aggies did have Crocodile Rock and Kadango Red fin. Both have red males. A1 Tropicals has a small Kadango red fin that is starting to get red flanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bartman04 Posted December 5, 2011 Author Share Posted December 5, 2011 Aggies did have Crocodile Rock and Kadango Red fin. Both have red males. A1 Tropicals has a small Kadango red fin that is starting to get red flanks.Thanks MattroxI will hit the Aggies and the Bunnings one and if I don't get anything from there I will try A1 Tropicals. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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