Firemouth Problems

[Auratus]

I've had my firemouths for a few months now and I'm having a problem with the dominant one. During feeding he's more concerned about chasing the other fish away then eating. He gets his share and chases the others behind the rocks and they barely get any. So, he keeps getting bigger and these other two are staying the same size from what I'm guessing is lack of food. (Fish don't stop growing because of dominance issues do they?) I need to stop this or he's just going to keep getting bigger and it's going to become more of a problem and eventually he'll get large enough to kill the others I've tried giving him tubifex worms in one corner and giving the other two worms in another corner but he'd rather go attack them.

Suggestions?

 

[mwm]

I Would Say Sell him He sounds like to much of a bastard and it sounds like shes tourting your fish. How long have they been in the tank? He might just be trying to show them who the dominate one is

 

[Ben]

good point mwm he just might be trying to show whose boss. if you dont want to sell him i suggest putting devider in the tank or moving him.

HTH

DD

 

[Vip]

(Fish don't stop growing because of dominance do they?)

Yeah they do stop growing i hear this happens alot with Discus and it happened with my cons, but as the others say your best bet is to get rid of him.

 

[Auratus]

If I do get rid of this guy, wont it just become a battle between the two remaining ones? Firemouths are frustrating.

I've had them about 3 months now? That's a rough guess, I don't really remember.
Edit: I should also say that they were all the same size when I bought them.

 

[fufanu360]

well, i would get rid of that guy. as for the other two, as long as they dont fight now and are pretty close in size, you should be ok... i have a bigger one and a smaller one and they leave eachother alone, sometimes they flare though....

i think the key is to have other fish in the tank to spread the aggresion

 

[Dwarfs]

Maybe you could get a divider/ a large breeding net to hold him back from the other two until they can regain some size and dominance in the tank. Good luck

 

[Jason_S]

any of the options provided would work fine. I mainly posted to let you know that you need to decide which option to go with fairly soon. if your dominant firemouth keeps eating "more than his share" he'll eventually get bloat and die. I've lost a couple of Thorichthys this way. One dominant male will emerge and chase the others away at feeding time, leaving all the food to himself. Firemouths and other Thorichthys are not overly prone to bloat unless they are overfed.

quick question, what size is the tank?

To throw out another option, you could get 2-3 more firemouths and some platys. before adding these new fish to the tank though, remove the 3 firemouths that are already in the tank and completely switch around all the decorations in the tank. then, reintroduce all the fish at once. having the firemouths in a slightly larger group may help. you could even trade in the dominant firemouth when you get the new ones.

one final note, when you feed I'd make sure to feed at each far end of the tank. that way there's some food on each end of the tank so while the more dominant fish are on one side eating, the others can go to the other side.