Firemouth Cichlid aggression help?

[SAChichlidLover]

Here’s one of my beautiful new firemouth cichlid’s whose doing great and eating really well aswell. My only problem with him is his aggression especially during feeding time where he simply will just attack anything to try and eat food in his tank area.. I’ve even had to split the food amounts to two ends of the tank so that the other cichlids apart from the severums can actually eat. From what was a success has started to go a bit sour with a backup plan already in place. Has anyone been able to manage firemouth aggression before as I genuinely thought I had it solved but it’s been almost two weeks now and the male had just become increasingly more feisty

 

[UnknownFishies]

what’s your ratio? maybe you got all males and he’s asserting dominance? sorry not really an expert.

 

[SAChichlidLover]

what’s your ratio? maybe you got all males and he’s asserting dominance? sorry not really an expert.

It's okay no need to be sorry I appreciate you replying! I have a male and female firemouth, male and female gold severums, two unsexed heckelii and male and female bolivian rams. The FM will only usually go for anything that is too close to him but that just concerns me and upsets the balance I had as he is one of the most active fish in the tank

 

[UnknownFishies]

this is definitely strange behavior... try reaching out to a moderator or someone who knows a lot about chichlids to see if this is normal. the only other theory i have is that the FM in question is really territorial?

 

[SAChichlidLover]

this is definitely strange behavior... try reaching out to a moderator or someone who knows a lot about chichlids to see if this is normal. the only other theory i have is that the FM in question is really territorial?

I will do, thanks so much for your advice. I thought it was strange as he snapped one day and was extremely aggressive towards everything but the sevs, He has calmed down alot since but is very weird with the heckelii and the rams, I suspected the rams to be targeted after I saw him pushing them out of the way with feeding which is why I've had to try my hardest to keep him eating on the other side of the tank but the heckelii? That is what really has confused me as they are almost three times his size and he seems to be almost trying to be the dominant fish constantly.. Very strange but also my own fault for putting him with alien fish to him

 

[UnknownFishies]

I will do, thanks so much for your advice. I thought it was strange as he snapped one day and was extremely aggressive towards everything but the sevs, He has calmed down alot since but is very weird with the heckelii and the rams, I suspected the rams to be targeted after I saw him pushing them out of the way with feeding which is why I've had to try my hardest to keep him eating on the other side of the tank but the heckelii? That is what really has confused me as they are almost three times his size and he seems to be almost trying to be the dominant fish constantly.. Very strange but also my own fault for putting him with alien fish to him

we all make mistakes, but i mean this is probably no big deal. also if your FM is continuing to hog the food try different sinking foods to ensure that all the fish eat properly.?

 

[SAChichlidLover]

we all make mistakes, but i mean this is probably no big deal. also if your FM is continuing to hog the food try different sinking foods to ensure that all the fish eat properly.?

I hope it isn't as I do have plans of moving the firemouths out once they are mature enough, I am just shocked at how I've had two batches of agressive firemouths in my life haha and I will do

 

[Wills]

Its tough man this is sort of what I said in the other night, there sometimes is no rhyme or reason to CA aggression. In a tank with other CAs you probably wouldnt notice it as much as they would all be the same so you get that balance but SAs are usually only focused on territory for their area in the tank or a when breeding so the aggression doesnt stay on all the time. I don't really think you've had that initial success with these as they have only been there for a few weeks (I'd guess 2?) so it does not bode well long term.

How far of is the 75?

Wills

 

[SAChichlidLover]

Its tough man this is sort of what I said in the other night, there sometimes is no rhyme or reason to CA aggression. In a tank with other CAs you probably wouldnt notice it as much as they would all be the same so you get that balance but SAs are usually only focused on territory for their area in the tank or a when breeding so the aggression doesnt stay on all the time. I don't really think you've had that initial success with these as they have only been there for a few weeks (I'd guess 2?) so it does not bode well long term.

How far of is the 75?

Wills

It really is You were not wrong and the only thing that changed was his aggression just went from what I was used too with the others to more of a tank boss sort of type, I actually tried combatting this by shifting some dragonstone and adding more in to try and make more area for territory which worked for half the day untill he clocked on that he is still the most aggressive, There's going to be two new 65's by next month hopefully, one with peacocks and smaller hap species and another with my original community however I'm really going to have to play it safe with the firemouths as I have no idea how they will react to my original community fish but considering they will be the only cichlids in there then that will hopefully calm things down a bit, I have noticed that he does not at all go for the tetras so luckily my black widows will be fine but I am probably going to have to keep the dwarf gouramis in the 15 gal considering they would be torn to pieces by the firemouths in fact I was even considering keeping my baby longfin albino bristlenose in the south american once it's grown up as I can already tell the firemouths are going to cause issues ? Thank god for multi tank syndrome haha.

 

[Metalhead88]

I have a firemouth with my severum and they do great together. The severum is more than double it's size though. I'd expect there to be issues if they were the same size. The severum really isn't a very aggressive fish.

Sorry if I missed this info, but what size tank are they in and how big are each fish?

 

[SAChichlidLover]

I have a firemouth with my severum and they do great together. The severum is more than double it's size though. I'd expect there to be issues if they were the same size. The severum really isn't a very aggressive fish.

Sorry if I missed this info, but what size tank are they in and how big are each fish?

They are currently in a 75 gallon tank, The two gold severums are almost three times the size of the firemouth so they dont really bother each other
The problems are with my heckelii which are around 6 to 6 1/2 inches long where as the firemouths are three times smaller and still bother them and the bolivian rams which are just a bit smaller than the firemouths which is probably why the aggression is caused with them