Festivum Trouble

[koinukun]

Hi there everyone.

Had a bit of an incident yesterday between my 6" Angelfish and my 4" Festivum. They usually tend to ignore one another or the Angel would chase the Festivum away if he went into the Angel's favourite amazon sword. But yesterday all war broke loose and the Festivum went mental.

He was relentlessly attacking the Angelfish who was trying to run but everywhere he went he was chased. The angel looked awful so I put the Festivum into the Q-tank for some time out. Mr. Angelfish had a very shredded tail and dorsal fin and had large scratches all over his body from bites and hitting rocks/wood. Thankfully he's on the mend already with his scratches clearing up very fast and his fins look better than they did.

My Question is why the sudden change in temperament in the Festivum?

It's a 40g tank with heaps of plants to break up territories and hide in (not that it did anything)

Could it be because I moved 1 of my sword plants from the Festivum's territory into the Angels? I did this because the Festivum had eaten huge holes in all the leaves and I wanted to give the plant some time to grow back.

Does water temperature have anything to do with aggression levels? It's on 27.C Should I lower it down a bit?

Is he just a nasty fish? I had heard that they are one of the better fish to have with angels and they should get along fine...

Also he always seems to be hungry and if he's not pleading at the front for food he's eating my plants! I feed 2 small feeds a day which he gorges himself on but I was wondering if this aggression could be hunger linked?

If you can give any advice or thoughts I'd really appreciate it. I really don't want to have to get rid of the Festivum or Angel as I'm so attached to them both.

Thank you

~koinukun~

 

[Colin_T]

It was territorially motivated. The fish might have been feeling amorous due to maturing (reaching breeding age) and also the warm water. Then the combination of having its favourite plant moved, and the need to breed, got too much and decided the angel was in its space/ territory. So it proceeded to chase the angel out of its territory. The angel had nowhere to go and got bashed.

Festivums are normally fine with angels but you do sometimes get a rogue fish that hammers everyone. These agro fish are best moved to another tank.

Having the temperature around 25C will reduce the stress and help keep things calm. Many tropical Amazonian fishes come into breeding condition when the water warms up to 27-28C. Cooler water will make this less likely to happen, although it can still happen and fish will still breed at cooler temperatures. But it should help.

Whenever you move the plants around in the tank you should make sure something else is put in the place. This stops the fish thinking its territory has been expanded and therefore it now has the tank to itself.

If the festivum is eating plants, and they do, try feeding some fresh or frozen (but defrosted) veges to it. You can use most things but pumkin, zuchhini & peas are common examples. You can also use a vege flake or pellet.

 

[koinukun]

Holy Moly! Fantastic reply! Thanks so much! ^O^
Everything I needed to know.

I'll set the tank back to how it was originally and hope for the best!

Thanks again!

~koinukun~

 

[koinukun]

Well I put the Festivum back in the tank and put everything to how it was originally but it did nothing to ease his aggressiveness. I reduced the temp to 24.C but he still went mental at my angelfish. He's back in the isolation tank for now but I need some advice!

I love him to bits but he cant live with my Angel. I've had my angel for over a year now and he's my 'pet' pet.
I don't think he can stay permanently in the isolation tank as it's only a 10g and Festivums grow big. I also can't get another tank large enough for him as I have neither the money nor the space.

Can I leave him in the 10g? Or should I just return him to the pet shop. It's a sad turn of evens as he was getting such spectacular colours and shape but he has some real aggression issues and would easily kill the Angel if left in the main tank for over a day or 2.

Now my tank is looking rather bare. If there was no hope and I did did return him is there anything else that could fill the gap? I was thinking a school of cardinal/rummynose tetras and some rams or some sword tails and pearl gouramis. Would these work?

Thanks for any advice you can spare!

~koinukun~

 

[Colin_T]

You could try leaving the festivum in the 10g tank for a week and then put it back in the main tank. You can also try redecorating the main tank so the territories have been completely changed around. The combination of isolating the festivum and changing the tank layout should act like a new home when the festivum is re-introduced to the main tank. If it fights again then perhaps get rid of it and try a new small one. But give it a day or so with the angelfish and see if it settles down. It might get a bit grumpy to start with and then settle down. If it doesn't you can try isolating it for another week and then try again.

Adding small tetras like cardinals/ rummynose to a tank with an adult angelfish is probably not a good idea. They are slim and could well get eaten by the angel.
Rams would probably be ok but not with a festivum. Swordtails and pearl gouramis would be ok.

 

[always4lora]

I've been on the lookout for a festivum as i read they were peacefull.... hope when i eventually find one it will be a nice one My Angels are likes pet's to , theyre dead responsive to me.