Mean EBA

[Stefan3289]

I had this issue with one off my other EBAs, but he sadly passed away due to swim bladder. However, now the other EBA has stepped up and chases the new EBA I put in and the blur acara in there. The second the cone out from hiding and he sees them, he goes in a full chase. The only thing that stops them is if they go back or one of the severums steps in to break it up. What should I do?

 

[HoldenOn]

Is it 2 males? What size is the tank? Rehoming may be your only course of action.

 

[Stefan3289]

Yes all three of them all males. There was a female but I rehomed her since she was trying to spawn and it would’ve been an aggressive frenzy..

 

[Stefan3289]

Size of the tank is 75 gallon all three are juveniles/teens

 

[HoldenOn]

It could just be them sorting out a hierarchy, if it gets any worse you could consider rehoming. What do you think about keeping one in a 29?

 

[Stefan3289]

When you say hierarchy, what is normal behavior in that

 

[HoldenOn]

Well, one is the dominant and then you have a beta and then there is the lowest guy. Byron probably knows 1000% better then me, maybe he can comment..

 

[Stefan3289]

@Byron?

 

[Byron]

@Byron?

I am not as up on Central American cichlids (and larger SA cichlids) as some members, but it is my understanding that this fish might be best as a pair (male/female) or a group of five or six. Male cichlids are territorial, all species, to varying degrees. Territory is not something that appears only with spawning; male cichlids will consider "x" space as theirs period. The extent to which they enforce this as I say varies with species and also individuals.

 

[Wills]

Adding cichlids to an established tank even of a few months is always tricky... If you have had a death as well it will all be to play for.

You could try taking all of the fish out - rescaping the tank and then add the fish back in. You would need to make it totally unrecognisable too. Its not guaranteed to work but it can.

What is the stocking in this tank - you mentioned multiple acaras and severums? What kind of Sev is it you have? In a 75 Im hoping its a single mouth brooder or rotkiel rather than green/gold then with a group of maybe 3-4 Acaras (that may be pushing it though).

Wills

 

[Stefan3289]

The stock is...

1 gold severum

1 Red spotted severum

2 electric blue acaras

1 blue acara

1 synodontis catfish

everything except the syno is juvenile as he is 8 years old

 

[Stefan3289]

I will definitely try to rearrange the tank but there isn’t much I can really do. At one point I did have a group of five but I feel like it was even worse (maybe cause the other one that died was quite territorial), so I ended up returning some.

 

[HoldenOn]

I have heard that Blue Acara can be really aggressive