Territorial Plec

[Egmel]

One of my pitbull plecs has grown more quickly than the other and is now starting to get very territorial. 'my food' 'my bog wood' 'my leaf' 'my bit of sand' etc. etc. Basically if he sees the smaller one he chases him away.

This must be stressing the smaller one, though he appears to be eating fine and pushing his way on a regular basis.

Basically what can I do to alleviate this? At the moment there are several live plants, mainly at one end of the tank, and one large bit of bog wood. There's also a few rocks which they can sit on or hide between but they're not very big.

Should I look at adding some more hiding places? Would getting another small plec help blur the 'my territory' 'your territory' lines? (I had 3 but lost one soon after acclimatisation) I'm hoping to get some cories later would adding more bottom dwelling fish help?

What should I look out for as serious warning signs? I don't think they can actually fin-nip but both of them had bits missing from their tails when they came from the store, these are now growing back.

 

[Fat Boy]

Seems strange, they should be kept in groups so maybr adding another 1 or 2 more may help.

They do like to be on the bottom so perhaps try freeing up some space on the floor of your tank may help.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Plecos are territorial, adding more will not alleviate the situation. Space and cover will.

 

[smithrc]

Plecos are territorial, adding more will not alleviate the situation. Space and cover will.

Not the case with Pitbulls - they are basically like large otos

What you probubly have is a male and a female...
our group has one larger darker that i suspect is a male as it is domanent. The rest (4 or 5 I cant remember) all hang out together and have no problems.

try adding some area defining items eg slate or pebels... our 'females' all hang out under the filter and on the left of the tank while the other one hangs out in the rest of the tank

 

[Egmel]

Plecos are territorial, adding more will not alleviate the situation. Space and cover will.

Not the case with Pitbulls - they are basically like large otos

What you probubly have is a male and a female...
our group has one larger darker that i suspect is a male as it is domanent. The rest (4 or 5 I cant remember) all hang out together and have no problems.

try adding some area defining items eg slate or pebels... our 'females' all hang out under the filter and on the left of the tank while the other one hangs out in the rest of the tank

Ok, will do. We have a large sandy one who is the paler of the two and a smaller darker one. I think the large one may be female as it has a more rotund figure

They seem to have calmed down now, it may have just been teething problems while they were getting bolder and investigating other areas of the tank. For the first week the sandy one sat underneath a crypto leaf, the darker one was more adventurous and was often found on the bog wood or the rocks or sitting on top of and amazon sword leaf (used to bend down with the filter flow and he'd suck onto the top surface!). Now the pale one is the one out and about, sucking onto anything and everything.

I'll try to get some more recent photos at some point so you can see the difference between them, they both have the same patterning just one is the inverse of the other!

Cheers for the feedback guys