Keyhole Question

[Whitester]

Hey I am relatively new to fish keeping. Only have been keeping fish for 6-7 months. I have had 2 keyholes in my 60 gallon community tank. They NEVER messed with ANY other fish at all. I have never seen them bother any other fish, until today. Well I was at my LFS and they had some juvi keyholes. I picked up 3 of them. The new keyholes have been in the tank for about 4 hours. The keyholes that I have had it the tank for a few months are now picking on each of the three new keyholes. They keep chasing and fin nipping. My question is... How long do I wait to see if they aggression settles down? I would hate to wake up and see my new keyholes injured or worse dead. I cannot believe the older keyholes are doing this, they never bothered any fish before.

Please help. Thanks!

 

[snowflake311]

You might have a matur paire of keyholes male and female. Is so they are not going to take well to new keyholes in their home. You could try to take out the 2 problem fish put them in a holding tank and moving things around let the new ones adjust then add your old fish. It would be like they are starting over. It could help.

But they will pair up again and pick on the others. So you might want to grow the babies out so they can hold their own and they will set up a kind of pecking order. That's what I would do.

Good luck.

 

[Rust]

Id do this bud, take the old ones out, put them in a small tank or even a large bowl with an air pump in (will only need to be in there for a few mins) then rearange the WHOLE tank turn the lights off and add the old ones back in, leave the lights off for 24hrs (if the room is light cover it with a towel or somthing...thats usually how i get around it with my large cichlids...if that doesnt work, then as said above remove the smaller ones and grow them out until they are big enough to fight back and set up dominance in the tank

 

[Whitester]

Thanks for the info... I am not sure if the older ones are "paired up" because they both look EXACTLY the same. I have read that the fins will be different between the sexes.

It seems that the aggresion has settled down some. I have been watching close to see if there is aggresion like there was. Thanks again.

 

[snowflake311]

Good to hear they are settling down. Cichlids don't like new guys. Mine are confused by my new Rubber nose pleco. They tried to nip at him. As long as they are getting along no need to worry

 

[Whitester]

Good to hear they are settling down. Cichlids don't like new guys. Mine are confused by my new Rubber nose pleco. They tried to nip at him. As long as they are getting along no need to worry

U can unnderstand my concerns right? To all of a sudden see the 2 established Keyholes feverishly attacking the 3 new keyholes was alittle unexpected. Before I came here (seeking help) I just started putting more and more fake plants in the tank, to give the new commers even more cover. I had alot to begin with. You can see my tank HERE if you like. Now it has about 6 more plants. I still left the front 5 inches of the tank clear to allow for fast swimming.The smaller 3 are about 1/2 to 3/4 inch smaller. The 3 stick together like glue. They can out manuver the larger (fatties). The 2 larger keyholes are not constantly chasing anymore. They all gather near each other once in a while without any aggression from the larger 2. I am keeping an eye on the fins incase nipping in happening while I am not watching. No big chunks out of anyone, alittle tiny nip on 1, the smallest. All are eating very well.

Thanks for everyone's input.
Any more comments/help is appreciated.

 

[snowflake311]

Oh yeah it's never fun to watch your fish pick on the née guys. Adding more plants I think would and did help. They have a pecking order now and everyone knows thier place in the tank so things will get better and better. That is until you get a pair and you have good chance of that happening now. So watch out for that.

 

[Whitester]

Oh yeah it's never fun to watch your fish pick on the née guys. Adding more plants I think would and did help. They have a pecking order now and everyone knows thier place in the tank so things will get better and better. That is until you get a pair and you have good chance of that happening now. So watch out for that.

Thanks! Everything is going great now... Back to NORMAL! All five are getting along nicely and often "play" with each other. The aggression has subsided. How will I know if 2 of them pair up? I think they are all males. From what I have been reading they all seem to be males. Maybe the 3 new younger ones are too young to tell for sure.

 

[snowflake311]

When they pair off the become aggressive to the others and don't want them to come near. They will stay near each other might start to lip lock and one will show off to the other.