Jaguar And Butterkofferi Issue

[shadowfakx]

Have a 3 inch male Jaguar with a 3 inch Butterkoferi in a 75 gal.
There's also a 10 inch pleco in there. Plenty of rock caves and driftwood crevices for hiding and, in fact, so much so where one fish couldn't see another from one end to the other. That said , I introduced the Jag and Butter at the same time. The first week was perfect; no badgering. Then the Jag started to seek out the Butter and has him rather stressed and hiding most of the time. However, on occasion they will swim together along the glass and then the Jag goes back to bullying. Note, that the Butter has no fear at feeding time and they seem to be growing at the same rate. Note, as well, that the Butter is a fast one and rarely have I seen a frayed fin or body gash. My intention was to have them there until they grew to large enough where I'd house them in a 120 gal. I don't want to give up on this experiment of having these 2 wonderful creatures co-exist.

Contemplating a few options:
1. intro a larger, tough cichlid or two. Thinking of Texas and/or Dempsey.
2. a school of dither fish ( but kind will survive or prove uninteresting to the Jag and Butter? )
3. a group of about 3 inch clown loaches; I've seen then numerous times co-existing with S.A. and C.A. cichlids.

just want the Jag to concentrate less on the Butter.

Suggestions?

 

[nellynelly]

You have two very agressive cichlids, which when grow will go at it hammer and tonges, rehome atleast one now, sounds as its already happening, cichlids as a whole choose there tank mates not you....

 

[balajake]

A jag would batter a texas and a Dempsey. I wouldn't put anything else in

 

[nellynelly]

Its either a case of having a solo tank, how its known "wet pet" with either the Jaguar or Butti, both of these when matured will destroy most tank mates, Unless you upgrade to around 300g......I know first hand a Jaguars temperment,

 

[shadowfakx]

thank you all for the pronto replies; you all know cichlids, so I'm going to heed your advice.
so the dither fish angle prolly wouldn't apply; I'm assuming by your collective--and probably experienced--silence on that solution.
p.s.

you're right, fish fanatic, they do tend to ignore our choices on how we want it to be....

 

[Ryan_W]

My female Jag used started off fine, then she got too big for her boots, and now she's spot on. By no means is she a push over and she'll try to intimidate my male JD, but she rarely lip-locks with him. She nudges the Bush Fish around but NEVER attacks them.

It's swings and roundabouts. Maybe yours will calm down or maybe he's destined to be all alone. Personally I think any fish can be 'trained' to be good. Whenever my Jag used to get bossy, I'd put my hand in the tank and give her a nudge so she knew who was the boss and that her behaviour wasn't acceptable. As I said, she's now as good as gold (even when spawning with my True Parrot, to no avail)...

 

[GShorty1981]

The Butti will kill it when it gets bigger, Jags are more mature at 3" so it has the upper hand for now, Buttis are more crazy than Red Devils and should only be housed alone.

 

[josh_g]

I had a butti in with my jag, jack dempsey, red devil and green terror and he soon outgrew them all and then the but kicking started. I now only had 1 fish nice and peaceful

 

[shadowfakx]

FishCrazy:

Ah!
Well, that was actually what my premise was; that the butti was no wimp, period, end of story. That ---foolish dreaming--the parity would begin and continue and both wouldn't want to putz around with the other---either by feeling the pain and/or they had staked out territory which there is plenty of.

Curiously, I have been, for awhile feeding bloodworms /brine shrimp every 3 days for both of them. But every day spirulina flakes and pellets ( by Cobalt ) which the butter squafs up like candy but the Jag hardly touches. Point is to have the Butter outpace the Jag in growth by about an inch or so. Hope is that the Butter will sense his weight and the Jag will see it. Maybe doing some anthropomorphizing but there are times when the Butter just won't bolt and hide....will kinda straddle the Jag when the Jag wants to mess around.....but eventually the Jag rules and Butter flees. Man, I just don't wanna give up but it pains me to see the Butter hiding, most of the time, and seeming stressed...though, again, when he eats, he shows all his glory and form and well, you know.

Really, strongly considering tossing in a red devil or some dithers. Now, e.g., this minute, both are poking around, like there's no prob. Yet I know , within 5 minutes, that'll be all over with and butter will be in the shadows. Seems, though, this morning, Butter has definitely gained some sizable body mass.