Need Help Stopping P.Sacrimontis Aggression

Hi guys have not been active for a while and just need some help on ways I could stop aggression. Earlier this year I bough 4 P.Sacrimontis 3 female and 1 male. There where originally in a 130L tank but I then moved them to a 3x2x2. The only tank mates they share are 6 E.Togolensis. Unfortunately I am now only left with 1 male and 1 female, they are in quite a big tank with lots of caves and hiding areas but the male just does not stop chasing the female all over the tank. I believe the other 2 females died due to stress as there is nothing wrong with the tanks water quality. The remaining female rather hides up behind the hang on filter intake or above the heater. I was thinking about either adding some dither fish or removing the male for a bit. What would you guys recommend?

Edit: I have tried rearranging the tank multiple times

Are you sure the female is actually female and not a subordinate male in female colours trying to avoid being attacked?

The only option is to separate them or get rid of the male, wait a few weeks then get a smaller male to replace him. Then the female will have the home ground advantage and the smaller male will be the newcomer to the tank and he will be going into her territory.

Unfortunately this species is not available at the moment I know a guy who is raising up some fry but will be a while before I can get another. After work today I pulled everything out the tank caught him and he is now in a breeding box in my 130L for a while. I also completely rearranged the tank and added some new plants. I am going on holiday in 3 days for a week so I will likely put him in before I go and hope for the best. I am also planning on adding some dither fish such as cherry Barbs when I get back.

I kept sacrimontis twice, years ago, and tried everything to manage the aggression. I failed. It's possible I learned though.

This fish is beautiful, and I really liked them. I found the behaviour a lot like Wallaceochromis from farther north, and I never got anywhere with them, either. P sacrimontis came in to a friend's recently and sold out before I could grab some. I had a plan to treat them as extreme riverine Cichlids, and turn up the water flow. Go with the decor you have, though plants may suffer a bit, and get a flow going that makes the fish work.
I find that if they come from moving water, that can sometimes settle them down. And I wouldn't have used anything smaller than my 6 foot tank.

The problem is the first time I saw them, they were in a 12 foot tank at a store. There were 3 pairs, all guarding fry. The flow was normal. How we get from the psycho killer to 3 pairs who acted calmer than P pulcher is something I have never understood. The pairs in the store were almost juveniles - very young and smallish. The wilds I got became very large before the mayhem broke out.

Not cherry barbs!

That fish is bottom oriented, and won't work as a dither. I'd look for a fast moving upper third of the tank fish. It would have to be tough, and able to scoot through the current.

GaryE said:

I kept sacrimontis twice, years ago, and tried everything to manage the aggression. I failed. It's possible I learned though.

This fish is beautiful, and I really liked them. I found the behaviour a lot like Wallaceochromis from farther north, and I never got anywhere with them, either. P sacrimontis came in to a friend's recently and sold out before I could grab some. I had a plan to treat them as extreme riverine Cichlids, and turn up the water flow. Go with the decor you have, though plants may suffer a bit, and get a flow going that makes the fish work.
I find that if they come from moving water, that can sometimes settle them down. And I wouldn't have used anything smaller than my 6 foot tank.

The problem is the first time I saw them, they were in a 12 foot tank at a store. There were 3 pairs, all guarding fry. The flow was normal. How we get from the psycho killer to 3 pairs who acted calmer than P pulcher is something I have never understood. The pairs in the store were almost juveniles - very young and smallish. The wilds I got became very large before the mayhem broke out.

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I am definitely looking to upgrade to a canister filter with a bit more flow I am actually planned to pick up one from a mate when I go on holiday. As for dither fish what about rummy nose tetras?

If they behave like kribs they will fight until a pair is formed; however they are strong pair forming and hte extra females will be toast. I've not owned them but my regular kribs (in a 40B) faught like cat and dogs for 3 weeks through-out the tank until they finally paired up and then they were happy dorky. Please execuse me if this species has a different behavior. Btw this is the 40B i had with the kribs - probably very different than their river environment:

How large is their current aquarium - er how long and tall and wide. rummy really need a long aquarium - with my kribs i had a few cherry barbs and they did fine but the schooler i had was kubotai rasbora which stay right below the surface.

P sacrimontis get bigger than a pulcher. I would get a Congo tetra sized dither - something that hits 6-7bcm plus and can move.

The tank is 3ft long 2ft high and 2ft wide

What about Buenos Aires tetras. They are pretty tough, get big enough and if you have 10-15 they would be happy enough in their group.

It's a very different fish from pulcher, or kribensis. First off, the size of the fish matters. Over time, it isn't a dwarf Cichlid in my estimation. One of my males lived a long time after he killed the female. I read this, and I wonder of I'm a fool because I would keep them again. But when you see a couple getting along, wow.

@anewbie may have the answer. It could be that they will settle in time. Here, I regretted using a 3 foot tank - it was too small. I had Nanochromis splendens, a tiny dwarf, and several pairs went though the same kind of ferocious fighting, Once the bad period was done, they were a fine for the rest of their lives. Maybe that's what works with sacrimontis - white knuckle awful to watch fishkeeping for a bit, followed by calm.

My sacrimontis killed each other. They didn't make it through the conflict period. They are the only Pelvicachromis I have kept (with roloffi) that I didn't manage to breed, and I tried twice. It's a challenge, and it's not a "krib".

You definitely want to use soft sand substrate and lots of large driftwood and rocks slanted on the driftwood. A few large leaves covering everything will also help. This will allow them to hide and be completely out of line of sight during the aggression phase. Also if they do pair up they will want to dig a nice cave if they cna't find one naturally. This is the cave my kribs dug - again i'm assuming the basic behavior is the same; you can see the female on the left - the cockatoo is an unwelcome visitor (and mixing cockatoo with kribs is not advisable though in truth he learned to stay away from them).

In my newer tanks (not picture) where i deal mostly with dwarf cichild the structure is much improved as i have beocme wiser. In the tank with the IB - a larger dwarf cichild - i have a lot of driftwood with rock slants and leaf layering as i described. The plants are much more sparse. One of these days i should try to get a good picture of them - they are actually a very good alternative to zebra acara esp if you want something a bit more passive. I have 5 in a 65 (3 males 2 females); and there are boundaries on 'proper' behavior but they mostly get along.

I would describe there behavior as somewhat similar to Krobia xinguensis with regards to aggression though I do not know about about either native habitat to comment. There should be some detail info on the Krobia as they are an older species (older in the sense of discovery) but neither are very wide spread in the trade.

I added the male back into the tank last night as well, now the female is chasing him trying to breed and he is hiding up against the filter. When I get back from holiday I am going to hope they are both still alive and that they can get along. When I get back I will also be installing a canister filter for extra flow. I was also thinking about adding 10 rodway tetras.