Juraparis in groups??

[rvm]

I know Juraparis do better in groups, but do they have to be juraparis, or can they be other Geophagus? Also, would 3 be OK??

 

[rvm]

The reason I asl is because since I moved my Jurapari and Severum into the new tank, the Sev has been attacking the Jurapari. Not really badly, but just nipping him, and now his pectoral fins are all torn up, and he has a few scales missing, I wanted to know if it would help if there was a group of them. Or would it be better to get 3-4 silver sharks to spread the aggression out a bit?

 

[juanveldez]

I would add a few jurapari just for kicks ad a couple of silver dollars in there for dithers to help spread out the agression of the sev trying to assert his dominace, and establish a new territory.

 

[rvm]

would silver sharks be OK instead of the silver dollars? Purely because I prefer them!!! I'm trying to find some Juraparis as we speak!!

 

[juanveldez]

RVM, I can't say that I have ever seen a pic of a silver shark, or even that I know that much about them. where are you looking for the Jurapari?

 

[ryan]

How big is the tank you are adding the Bala/Silver Sharks to?

 

[juanveldez]

new tank post

Ryan thats the link to the post about the new tank.

and thanks ryan for clearing that up for me I have never heard of balas being refered to as silver sharks, and having never kept them only hearing that they get pretty massive in thier own right.

 

[rvm]

Yeah, sorry. I've just always called them silver sharks not Balas!!! I think I've found some Juraparis now though from trimar (i'm in the UK!) So I'll geive them a call tomorrow!
I've had to separate the Severum for now as he's even beating up on the Oscar that I got today (I got an Oscar slightly bigger than the sev because I didn't want to put a juvenile in there that is going to get beaten up and killed!!). Do you think another severum will calm him down?

 

[juanveldez]

there are some things that you can do to decrease agression, the frist thing you have done is to seperate them, I am not sure which fish you took out but often IME many people take the fish thats getting picked on out and with cichlids that are in the general sense peaceful like sevs and oscars, people need to take the bully out, by doing this espcially since the oscar is the new guy to the tank you give him a chance to set up a territory, the second thing is to keep the temp down around 76 degrees F by decreasing the temp you lower the metabolism of the fish and so you lower their agression. but I would take the sev out and put him back in his old tank for a few days totally rearrange all of the tank decos so it looks nothing like the orginal and then lowering the temp you will give the O a chance and then in a couple of days reintroduce the sev and everything should in theory go much better, but keep an eye on them!!!! also the addition of some dithers would never hurt.

 

[rvm]

cool, thats pretty much what I have done, and am going to do!! Thanks Juan!

 

[juanveldez]

no problem rvm

 

[ryan]

The 147g should be big enough for a group of three of so Balas if you want to use them as fast moving dithers for the more aggressive Cichlids. However, they will reach 10-12" in time and are fast moving fish that do need plenty of open water because of their active nature.

Thought you'd know them as Balas Juan so I thought I'd mention the name.