Advice On Aggressive Fish

[auntylin1]

hi from auntylin1
Seem to be the only person on the forum, too late, or time difference, being in uk.
Need advice, so will look in for replies tomorrow.
l have a 3ft tank l8in high, with asstd fish, all fairly healthy and doing well, reasonable harmony in there.
At tropical shop saw the last two firemouth cichlids, looked nice, and have had angels and kribs in past with no problems,
so got them, one 2in approx a bit reddish, the other 1half in no red, didnt know if a pair or not, now the big one chases the other away, and as got redder, but in the week since being in tank lve lost 3 biggish neons, one def lost tail, tonight l see a pearl danio with wound on side and dying, took remaining 4 neons out also danio in small tank, but also notice tonight that my big sucking loach 4inch long latched onto two fish briefly, one a large 5in gentle gourami, and a congo tetra3inch, l also have 2 green barbs 1in, 3 male mollies 3in, 2 zebra, another danio, kulli eel, the large gourami also seems to have a bit of a ragged dorsal fin recently. l have now read a few posts and gather that cichlids can be aggressive, more so if two together in communal tank, so is it likely to be one of them taking the neons and danio, or is it possible that its the sucking loach, can they do damage.
Would l be best finding a home for a cichlid, which one, does it matter, if the big or small one, and would the one remaining still attack neons, as l do like neons in a tank. Advice please.

 

[kim03333]

i'm not an expert so wait till someone else comes to help out, but i don't think your stocking sounds too good. how many litres does your tank hold? your fish might be getting agressive towards each other because they are overcrowded. firemouth cichlids may well have eaten your neons.

also green tiger barbs? they should be in a larger shoal. they can be nippy so they could have had a go at gourami's fins. so does the congo tetra i don't know how many danios you have, but they tend to shoal as well.
hopefully someone can give you more/better advice shortly

 

[dthoffsett]

If you can give your complete stocking (numbers and species), as well as the full dimensions or gallons/liters of your tank we should be able to give you some more help.

However, I can say that firemouths (though they are considered only mildly aggressive) will eat anything small enough to fit in their mouths, so small fish are likely to disappear. As for the aggression between the two, it could be two males fighting over territory, or just overcrowded fish fighting for space.

 

[Loony Fish]

fire mouths are aggressive...

 

[SharonCC]

Also, if by "sucking loach" you mean a Chinese Algae Eater, they are little terrors when they get over three inches. They lose their taste for algae, and prefer the slime coat of other fish. They can and do kill them....

 

[Mr Bliss]

My money is on the firemouths going after the smaller fish. Any fish, even a goldfish, will eat smaller fish if they can easily catch and swallow them. Firemouths have pretty big mouths and can eat surprisingly large tankmates if they decide to do so.

Aside from eating them, firemouths can also kill other fish, either directly or indirectly (through stress from being chased around). Among the smaller, so-called community-friendly cichlids, firemouths are extremely territorial. They can be much, much more aggressive than Kribs, for example, despite the two species both having "community-friendly" reputation. Most importantly, firemouths sometimes establish permanent territories that they think of as theirs, regardless of whether they are breeding or not. In a small-ish tank they sometimes decide to not tolerate any tankmates. If they have enough space and the tank is suitable for them (e.g. decoration/plants that breaks line of sight so they don't constantly get annoyed at other fish) they are indeed somewhat friendly in the sense that they won't kill anyone else in the tank. In less that ideal conditions, not so much. I've heard of firemouths bullying convict cichlids, which are notoriously aggressive (although to be fair, that was probably a breeding pair of firemouths. I've never heard of anything bullying Convicts when they are breeding. My convicts would attack my arm to protect their fry).

 

[cowbla1]

Stocking not good firemouths are too aggressive to go with neons and danios.