I am lossing my first Tropheus

[Josh]

I have a young male Tropheus I am losing to aggresion . I have removed him to a floatie in the tank and I am treating him with melafix to try and help his busted up fins to heal. The melafix seems to be doing more harm then good. On his first bath I found him up side on the bottom so I scooped him out and put him back in his floatie and a couple of minutes later he was swimming and eating again, which i guess is a good thing. Today was the first time he was treated. Nearly every fish is having a go at him, but he seems a little happier in the floatie. I have covered the floor of the floatie with gravel so the other fish don't have a go at him from below.

I guess I am after some advice on what other Tropheus owners do with there fish when/if this has happened to them.

[TropheusQueen]

Hi Josh,

I had never encountered this type of aggression till I met the Bulu Points one in particular. I increased the colony and still it continued. I removed the battered male, as you have, and placed him into a saver plus melafix - unfortunately he did not survive .

The aggression turned to new prey and two more were beaten badly. I removed the poor victims and placed them with Tropheus juveniles. One was so bad that he had no caudal fin or dorsal left-this was caused in one attack. In with the juveniles both are now in recovery, their fins growing back and both eating well. The primary tank has now reached an equilibrium - and they are breeding- with little aggression present. I have a new colony arriving soon and the two in recovery I will attempt to introduce to the new guys.

I have found, not only with tropheus, that fish placed in savers do not do all that well. Placing them in a quieter tank with tank mates tends to speed up their recovery.

Has the aggression diminished with your young males' removal? Or has another been chosen to take his place?

Aline

[Josh]

Aline.

He was only removed this afternoon, I have been watching the aggression get worse over the last week. The aggression has stopped for now.

I wish I had another tank he could go into. The only tanks I have running now are my demasoni tank and the flavus tank. I have a couple of two foot tanks with demasoni fry in them but they a pretty full ATM.

The gravel on the bottom of the floatie has settled him down and the other fish arent bothering him.

[Lee Miller]

Hi guys,

I agree with Aline (that's gotta be a first! ) that floaties aren't too successful. In my experience Tangs don't recover from a beating as well as Mals. I've had Tropheus and Cyprochromis males that just seem to lose the will to live - so they don't. Floaties just tend to add to their stress (even when beaten up they still seem to need company).

Removing the aggressor is another option, but when I've done that the next most dominant male has become just as aggressive as the fish I removed.

But maybe I'm just bitter and twisted - I've been beaten by Tangs myself. I've had colonies of T. K1's, K2's and Kasanga Red Rainbows all grow from 2cm fry to adults only to self destruct.

I now only keep peaceful Malawi cichlids (gotta get me some of those little pansy demasoni ).

Cheers,

[BlakeyBoyR]

I always found removing the aggressor to be the best solution in the short term. It is funny, after I removed my aurora male a few times to stop him lashing out, he seemed to learn that if he messed up he went into 'time out'. However that being said, the next most aggressive fish would step up and take his place :/

[TropheusQueen]

I agree with Aline (that's gotta be a first! ) that floaties aren't too successful. 

Ah Lee, have to change my tactics....can't have concurrence from the Shire tribe

Josh sounds like your only option atm is to keep him in the saver, my experience aside, he may prove me wrong. This is where I find Tropheus a bit tricky when reintroducing them back into the group. Regardless of whether you remove the injured or the aggressor you need to place them back at some time. I have always been able to do so successfully, only after rearranging territorial decor

I hope he heals and lives to battle again

Cheers

Aline

[YeW]

I think floaties are fine, if properly setup.

Add a piece of 40mm diameter black ag pipe to the floatie. Instant fish home .

[anchar]

I have a few individuals that will probably spend their life in floaties because they cannot be re-introduced into their group. Whilst in the floatie they display beautiful colour, defend their "home" and eat heartily. Once I put them back into the tank proper, they fade, stop eating and become bullied again.

My "permanent" floatie homes are 12" x 8" x 8" with a sand floor and some pipe and rock. Sounds cruel to some but it is the only option to keep the fish alive and seemingly happy. Even re-arrangement of the tank decor doesn't always work, especially in the long run.

Andrea

[MoliroMan]

Sorry to hear about this Josh!

Unfortunately it is almost unavoidable with tropheus especially black species tropheus. I haven't encountered any considerable aggression with any of my moorii species but there r exceptions. I have a dominant Tropheus ilangi which tended to keep everyone in check but would not actually cause any damage. The Tropheus Aline referred to is a real bully and i kept it in a 5 foot tank with another 39 fish so it couldn't do any damage. It did take a disliking of some other black species tropheus so i removed them and placed them in a 4 footer with my moliro colony and all is well now. I found that with the dominant ilangi and the dominant bulu point there was harmony in the tank since neither will move too far away from their territory and would not risk fighting each other. Unfortunately dominant fish wherever u move them will still be aggressive. The best option is to remove the victim of aggression temporary to a hospital tank and then introduce to another tank. I know u have limited tanks but unfortunately that is the only option. Maybe u could place the lone tropheus with your demasoni fry if they r not too small? Every tropheus owner should have a spare tank handy in case of such an event. But i have heard tropheus get depressed if they live in tank all by themselves so add some peaceful tank mates in there like leptosomas.

The other option is to add some duboisi into the tank to distract the aggressive nkonde but your nkonde may not display as well?

How many nkonde do u have in the tank? U might need to add more to reduce the aggression?

Sometimes there will be the one individual who will always be bullied and no matter what u do it will be bullied. In the past i have placed lone bullied tropheus in display tanks for this reason alone.

Also my experience with melafix with tropheus has not been favourable so i do not recommend u continue to use it. It would be wise to treat the fish with some metronidazole to prevent bloat.

Sorry Aline for selling u that bulu bully!!! I think u need to add a lot more females to the group and things will be ok. Did it kill one of the males i sold u?

BEST OF LUCK GUYS!

Don't give up!

Dave

[TropheusQueen]

Hi Dave,

Don't be sorry bully though he is, he is spectacular and as I mentioned he is now happy with the ratio - go figure. He did kill a smaller boy but as of tomorrow 30 more are arriving so fun and games once more. I will keep the new breeding colony separate - no need to scare them too soon

Cheers

Aline

[Josh]

Dave

I still have the original 24 fish. The first treatment of melafix made the young fellow roll over so I removed him and haven't treated him since. He is eating well and looks really well with the exception of his fin's. I will let him float until he recovers and then try to reintroduce to the main tank again. The aggressive male tends to leave the other fish alone now, so I am guessing he has a problem with this fish, or though just about all the fish were having a go at him before he was removed

[Matthew]

G'day Josh

You can try and attempt the following.

* Ensure the injured fish is fully recovered.

* Rearrange decor as much as possible in the tank.

* Remove agro boy to a fry saver (Now called the Sin Bin).

* Sin Bin should be in the same tank.

* Introduce previously injured (But now fully recovered, fit and healthy) male.

* Keep agro boy separate from the others, in the "Sin Bin" for three or four days.

* If the now introduced fish is doing fine in the colony reintroduce agro boy.

Now comes the tricky bit, here is where you may also attempt any, modified rain dance, witchcraft, sacrificial offerings etc that you know of as you never know it may work????

Please keep a close watch on them.

Matthew...

[Tiger]

just to add to Mathews points .

When you add the agro male ,keep the tank fairly dark for a couple of days .

hth

[trofius]

I have found that putting the aggro fish in the sin bin doesnt really solve the problem.

agreeing with earlier posts

rearange the tank after you remove mr cranky pants, then try to reintroduce them a week or so later,

or completely remove all decorations so their is no territorial points

darkness helps a little bit

i have had two different colonies in together, they still only attack their own kind, kinda have blinkers on! they have pretty focused aggro i have found.

and in the past an aggro fish will usually allways be cranky, no matter who they are in with, its just cranky for cranky sac, no real reason sometimes..

I had a duboisi like that, so i isolated him, didnt work he attacked the net trying to get out to the other fish and would get his teeths caught in it. So i put him in with my trets a tad bigger than him maybe 5 inches long, two days later dead tret, not happy....a week later the other tret took revenge, i found a dead half eaten duboisi. less happy.

I now have a rouge bemba (i think) ( he was free when i purchased my kiriza colony, that should have been a hint!) he is in with my foai magara, and a few others, the only thing that stands up to him is the 12cm beuscheri, but he is just way to quick .. even the 18cm magara gets a touch up from the bemba, but kinda brushes it off...next step if he doesnt settle is in with the elongatus, and they can sort each other out..

[Matthew]

G'day Josh

The method described I discussed with both Tiger and another bloke that is not on the net.

He swears by it (Not Tiger the other fella). But be warned it may take multiple attempts.

Another option that Chipimbi has tried is to introduce another type into the tank. Our big males seems to truly have 'blinkers' on. He simply ignores them mostly. But gets them to move out of his way.

But the funniest thing happened the other day Aline saw the biggest duboisi seemingly lose it. He seemed to take a big breath and then he chased the big bad Cherry Spot all over the tank for about 30 seconds. After that he went about his business and for some reason the male Cherry Spot seems to be leaving the duboisi alone.

PS Since this time Aline has had two different pairs of Cherry Spots spawning in the tank. Make love not war?

(PS. I have warned him that a sin bin offence will await him, should his behaviour deteriorate once more. )

The Fry saver will be one that is similar to the one described at this link

Fry saver

Mine are a little bit modified, but essentially the same. Ensure that you use at least a 4 or 5 liter icecream container. I also use a lid, with a 'V' slit in it to permit feeding. This will make sure he stays where he is put.

The fry saver also has an airstone attached, this continuously brings in water from the tank into the fry saver.

Matthew...

[Mazimbwe]

I have on occasion had to use a Floaty for my Tropheus and the thing that makes the most difference to my isolated, sinner or saint, fish is cover of some sort...Ag-pipe, PVC, rocks...what ever, even plastic plants.

And make the floaty as large as you can you can. At the $2 shop, or bunnings for the Cashed-up, there are heaps of basket type containers that are great as Floatys...and with enough Foam attached they will hold up heaps of rocks.