Pecking Order

[rEvolution27]

I thought it'd be fun if we try to post the pecking order and who's turf is who's of our tanks.

I'll start
Tetras own the bottom and if they feel like it they will collectively kick out anyone picking food from their territory. They themselves chase eachother at times and the smallest one seems to ce kicked out of the school quite often. The swordtails tend to take up the middle of the tank and the male one is the closely guarding owner of the coconut shell, only the female swordtail may enter at times. The male sword is desputably the king of the tank however he sometimes get competition from the schooling tetras. The guppies all stay so far ato the top that i barely see them, they're always the first to get food but are at the bottom of the social order, when they feel endangered they school together and the male leads. At the bottom of the chain is the poo snail who always get's a good pecking of agea off his back and even lower are the plants which always seem to get uprooted *sigh*.

Anyway mine's kina boring.. i really wanna hear yours

 

[big mick]

Watching my angelfish is like watching a soap opera or one of thoes crappy reality tv shows......the males all fighting to see 'who's the daddy' and the females all hanging about egging them on, then you see them hanging around with the other females and so on.....

 

[james1971]

My 2 silver sharks are definately the bosses of my tank at the moment. They glide around as if to say 'come and have a go then.....'

However, I also have 2 Angelfish that are growing quite quickly and may give them a run for their money in the future.

The biggest blouses in my tank are my 2 Silver Dollars. Seem to be scared of everything.

James1971

 

[langy]

The biggest blouses in my tanks are my 2 Silver Dollars. Seem to be scared of everything.

I'll second that

 

[OohFeeshy]

Hmm, I'd say the 15g has the most interesting heirachy... The 20g is made up of khulis, who just don't bother anyone (although the other fish sometimes think that they're very large edible worms...), the swordtails, who are in their own little world of male dominance, and the danios, who are ruled by the obese female zebra, followed by the other female zebra, then the female leopards, then the male leopards... In the 15g though, the cories don't bother anyone, then, it's probably one of the p. gudgeons, then one of the albino tetras, then... the other p. gudgeon, then the honey gourami, then on top of the tree is probably the other albino tetra, who just goes for anyone who comes too near...

 

[cheeky_chappie]

black shark 'thinks' he owns my tank, loves chasing the gourami's now and again. however, he doesn't mess with the angels, so he ain't that tough

 

[jkrekord]

well my tank is strange in that the neons are jus lil cowards and are at the bottom of the pecking order then my harleys they just whizz around stayin out of the way then my two sword tails then the polka dot loaches rule the bottom i have an adf that doesnt rule anyway but is a feisty bugger and gets left well alone my dwarf gourami was once the mighty ruler but now he's getting old he sits in a corner most the time but when he comes out he demands respact but the undisputed boss of my tank is my krib he lives in my bamboo cave statue and gives chase to the others when he feels like it he is the king of the tank

 

[riverman444]

One loneley Neon at the bottom of the chain. 4 Rasboras in the middle. 2 fancy-tail guppies (girlfriend wanted them )...they are wussies.....The King is my Crowntail Betta. His castle is a hunk of Java Moss-covered cork wood that floats around my tank.

 

[rEvolution27]

One loneley Neon at the bottom of the chain. 4 Rasboras in the middle. 2 fancy-tail guppies (girlfriend wanted them )...they are wussies.....The King is my Crowntail Betta. His castle is a hunk of Java Moss-covered cork wood that floats around my tank.

why do you have a neon all by itself? That's just mean... and doesn't he nip your betta?

 

[Jules H-T]

My tank has developed very nicely, as the fish grow. The objective is to get a decent medium to large community that may well need a bigger tank and/or splitting off.

The boss is the 10" BGK who I rescued a few months back, purely because of the size and speed of him. He doesn't actually hurt anyone though, and his territory is right to one side of the tank in a tall but thin bogwood/plant combo, maybe 10% of the tank. That worked out really well, I was concerned he'd spoil the balance of the tank.

Two of the clowns are much bigger (nearly a year older) than the others and not much can touch them, the smaller ones bicker amongst themselves mainly. They can give a decent bite to your finger if you hand feed them. A clown loach has an amazing turn of speed when it wants to- evolved from dodging rocks in fast flowing streams. The little ones often have a speculative pop at the red lines but they've got no hope of doing any damage and spend as much time chilling with them. They have a nice big cave to live in and a boat that the little ones use too. These fish show almost problem solving ability, I kid you not. They will get to food inside containers (show them an apple snail and it's trouble time), or above the water line.

The plec is still small (over a year old and still only 4"). He seems very happy, and eats well- no idea what the problem with his growth is, but there's not much I can seem to do about it, I do feed him at night as well as normal evening feeding time. Whilst he hides a lot, at feeding time he'll have a pop at absolutely anything near him and has come out of it with shredded fins a few times from the kribs (doesn't seem to discourage him, give him a few days and he's back to normal and always goes back for more a few weeks down the line). Likes to live on the side of one of the filters, or on a particular piece of pyramid shaped bogwood.

The red lines are passive, and lightening quick and shoal whenever anyone gets a bit feisty. Seeing all of them shoot about in perfect unison at the slightest sight of trouble, is a real sight. They sleep mid water, or behind a large piece of broken pot leaning on the front wall of the tank.

The lace gourami stays out of the way towards the top of the tank and is ignored by everything.

The female krib is usually very shy, the male will have a pop at her occasionally, and when they are looking to spawn the pair take over the tank completely (although that's tricky for them to make that stick with the clowns, the BGK, and a fearless plec)! It's hilarious to see them jabbing at the big clown, whilst he carries on digging in the gravel like he's not even noticed them! They have their own little broken pot to themselves.

The Danios have got a fat female leader and play amongst themselves in the top water or filter flow, ignoring and being ignored by everything else. They never seem to sleep, or get tired, ever.

The Khulis chill out burrowed under the pyramidal bogwood or in a particular plant, and only come out to eat- in an amorphous wriggling mass, they are getting real fat now.

Come feeding time though- forget it. They all go totally mental for the food and all shoaling/barriers/rank goes completely out of the window. It's funny, because I see people talking about food being eaten in 3 minutes. If it last 30 seconds in my tank it's a miracle!

 

[pinkdolphin_113]

Hey!
My tank mates are pretty spred out at the moment and it looks great but like all fish, they have their days. My Angel seems to be at the top of the pecking order at the moment. He's really small but still takes on any and they usually back away lol
This is quite dangerous for him because my Clown Knife Fish has acctual teeth and one day its gonna end up bloody unless I can move him sooner rather than later.
They same Tiger Barbs love nipping Angels fins but its the other way round here. My Angel seems to love stalking them and just swimming after one, usually the biggest albino, but theres no way he's after a meal because she's almost the same size of him.
I do have a lonely female platy that needs a mate soon or she might die of solitaryism or summat
The male Dwarf Gourami always tries to challenge my Angel but I have yet to see him stay and not back away. The female Dwarf Gourami keeps herself to herself at the moment for some reason. Same with the Corydoras and Plec.
Its all good

 

[Miss Dib Dabs]

Hmm tough question.....In a number of my tanks there's no definite heirarchy in place. The Malawis are generally happy to let the male Fuellborni think he's in charge but the synos in there might have something to say about that at a push. Of them the largest female, Beattie, is the boss. In the 15g the boss is almost certainly the deformed lady gourami who lives in there. Despite the fact she spends most of her time just sitting, due to her 'problem', if any of the other fish get in her way she'll try and do damage. She actually killed two danios because they wouldn't leave her alone.
In the adult gourami tank the boss is actually Spike, my male bristlenose. Mostly BB, my male gourami is in charge but if he gets in Spikes way he'll get whacked by his rather hefty tail....ouch! In my lady betta community, which has cories, a peach spot plec and synos and an angel living with them the boss is Teelie. My oldest CT girl. Funnily it's the angel that has personality issues though. He hates...and I do mean hate.....the tube I use for water cleaning and actually attacks me when doing the cleans! Funnily he seems to enjoy himself in the process. Never actually hurts when biting thankfully but it does make me laugh.
In my 55g I'm not sure there is a boss. Maybe the yoyo loaches but after lights out Angelicus would be boss. He's a good sized Syno Angelicus (yes terrible name he has, bygones). the angel in there is content to pork out of livebearer young and keep out of harms way.
My other tanks are betta tanks so all the boys are bosses of their own tanks but not sure that really counts since there's no one to be boss over.
Hugs,
P.