Female blue acara being chased, eating a little, looking stressed

[Orangutan]

Hi all,
I've set my 4ft tank up with the goal of having the blue acaras as the main stars. Problem is the female has been stressed for a long time now and just isn't loving life. The male is a fair bit bigger and full of colour (getting to 4.5-5in? and thick through the shoulders. Female is about 75-80% of his length with poor condition. looking thin!). The female is usually in one of the top corners with her fins tucked and really pale, or hiding behind a bit of driftwood the male can't easily get behind.

Up until a week ago I had a firemouth in the tank the same size as the male acara. That fish and the male acara were always displaying and trying to dominate each other (no lip locking or physical contact). Would be a bout 50-50 who would back down. Seemed that whenever the firemouth was out of sight the male acara would want to get out his aggression by chasing the female. The firemouth wasn't her biggest fan either so just when the male had disappeared, she would cop it from the firemouth.

So, I took out the firemouth a week ago to see if they'd settle. Maybe hoping the hormones in the male would settle. No joy, he still chases her any moment he sees her.

Maybe I should throw the firemouth back in and let the female have some rest and feeding for a while in the spare tank. Or maybe I should think about swapping for another female/leaving one out altogether (will the male keep his colour if the female isn't around?)

She used to spawn when she was bigger than the male but that was months ago. Other tank mates are two gourami, a few black tetras, and 3 bristle nose. Seems to only be trouble between the cichlids.

Thanks for any advice!

[Ged]

The addition of more dither fish may reduce the aggression towards the female but by the male may harass and potentially kill your dither fish. Providing more cover in the form of driftwood will give the female greater access to places to get away from the males attention.

I know it is a display tank but a temporary divider will allow the female to recover some condition.

[Link2Hell]

Try putting a mirror at the opposite end of the tank to where

the female hides

this should distract the male away from her and have him

feel there is another male in his territory

this has worked for me in the past to a point that the male

paired off with the female as he felt the "other male" was

in competition for the female