A Bully Is Emerging...

[Tag2008]

Hi Guys,

I have 3 smallish severums.. came mail order the other day..
They are healthy and fit looking and have been fine since arrival..

Today I fed them a new cichlid pellet and crushed it down a little for them as they were a bit big looking for them..

Anyway after they were fed one of them has went bananas chasing and bullying most of the fish.. the other 2 severums are scared and I cant thing whats set this off when 2 of them looked like they had paired off till today?

Id appreciate any thoughts on what can trigger this or is this just par for the course with some severums being cichlids?

If so what are my options? I dont have a tank with bigger fish to put him in with...

I have a tank going through a cycle but its not quite ready yet and I wondered if I could speed up the cycle process by taking the internal media from the main tank and putting it in the cycling tank leaving the big tank with the externals bacteria and chance that? The main tank has 2 filters an internal and external, its only been cycled for a few weeks and I was advised at the time by miss wiggles a while ago not to take any of the media from it with it being newly cycled.. but wondered if this situation would warrant drastic measures?

Do i ask a pet shop to take him? << Not keen on this option but if needs must?

I dont know anyone locally who has fish so dont have an option to give him away?

Its water change today so I will do that and change the decor around and see if that makes any difference...

Thanks again for any thoughts..
Cheers
Tag

 

[Tag2008]

Well...

Im sure there was something in the pellets, I may be wrong but this fella went nuts after I fed them with the pellets??

Anyways, I did my weekly maintanance and 25% water change and rearranged the decor kept the lights out for a bit and he seems to have settled down and is hanging with the others again instead of trying to have a go...he was just relentless for about 2 hours earlier..

I dont suppose this is solved and probably wasnt the food but binned it anyway..

 

[Axleuk]

Well...

Im sure there was something in the pellets, I may be wrong but this fella went nuts after I fed them with the pellets??

Anyways, I did my weekly maintanance and 25% water change and rearranged the decor kept the lights out for a bit and he seems to have settled down and is hanging with the others again instead of trying to have a go...he was just relentless for about 2 hours earlier..

I dont suppose this is solved and probably wasnt the food but binned it anyway..

I would have been tempted to feed hm that pellet again, just to see if you could replicate what happened earlier. If it did happen again then you know for sure what was causing it, if it didnt happen, then you know it was a one off and didnt need to bin the pellets.

There is a pinned topic regarding members offering to send other members mature media, perhaps you can have a look at that and see if any of our fellow members can help you get your tank cycled.

Mature Media Donating

 

[Tag2008]

Hi Axel

I never thought about feeding him it again I just was shocked at the jeckle and hide in him/her

Since they came to us they were fine and he just went nuts for a while..Lights are still off and they seem to be setteling for the night.

I guess i should have had the back up tank ready but messed around with it so much its still cycling and is eating ammonia just not the nitrites yet that i see...

I will just have to keep a close eye for rips n tears i guess..

 

[Erised]

It simply sounds like normal behaviour to me. I don't know about that type of fish in particular, but I've seen it happen with plenty of other fish. It's not so much being a bully as being at the top of the pecking order. I've had my danios do it, my black neons and my Siamese algae eaters still do it ... 1 of them will decide it's better than all the others in the tank and should get more food/first pick. He/she will chase them for about an hour until everyone has had enough food and can't be bothered with it anymore, and then it will quiet down.

I most definatly wouldn't put a fish down for that.

 

[Tag2008]

It simply sounds like normal behaviour to me. I don't know about that type of fish in particular, but I've seen it happen with plenty of other fish. It's not so much being a bully as being at the top of the pecking order. I've had my danios do it, my black neons and my Siamese algae eaters still do it ... 1 of them will decide it's better than all the others in the tank and should get more food/first pick. He/she will chase them for about an hour until everyone has had enough food and can't be bothered with it anymore, and then it will quiet down.

I most definatly wouldn't put a fish down for that.

Hi..
Yes perhaps drastic thinking..
Im not sure if it was domanance he/she was quite fierce but you could be right...
With them being cichlids I wondered if it was territory but there are only 3 and its a big ish tank enough for them at the sieze they are?