Aggressive Fish

[welshy9]

Hi all , We Have 2 of these fish tilapia mariaes

one male and one female

The Male Seems to be really aggressive towards her and is pushing her into a corner in with the plants , When ever she tries to come out the male attacks Here and pushes her back , ?


What do i do , is this normal , Is she ready to have babies ?

Any help is appriciated

Regards Welshy9

 

[Colin_T]

how big is the tank and are you sure you have a true pr (ie: 1 male & 1 female)?
The males will set up a territory and allow his girlfriend into it, but is she is a he then they will fight. Also if the tank is tiny then he will feel stressed by the small tank and might become agro due to that.

 

[Chiquita]

You should separate them if possible. Once cichlids get aggressive like that they tend to do it non stop. We really need to know what size the tank is.

For the time being you can add some more hiding spots like clay pots.

 

[welshy9]

ive asked at the shop how big the tank is and they said its 80 gals about 3 ft long : it seems more thank big enough for them just a bit worried as hes pushing her to one side

The male is a lot bigger in size and the female is smaller i will post some pics of them both

 

[Athena]

Were they a mated pair when you bought them? If not and your LFS just supplied you with a male and female, it could be that they have not taken to each other yet. Then again, even mated pairs can sometimes fall out - especially if the male wants to mate and the female isn't ready and spurns his advances.

I've had similar problem this week with my two pink convicts. The male got so aggressive with the female one day because she didn't want to mate, he was pushing her around, barging into her, fighting etc and she kept ending up confined to a corner of the tank - I had to separate them because she looked on the point of giving up and her fins were in a mess.

After 3 days apart, I released her back in and at first she hid in a corner and tried to escape him when he approached. The next day they were together again and she had the orange tummy which means she is spawning again!!

So, maybe you have a similar problem with yours?

Athena

 

[Davo86]

ive asked at the shop how big the tank is and they said its 80 gals about 3 ft long : it seems more thank big enough for them just a bit worried as hes pushing her to one side

The male is a lot bigger in size and the female is smaller i will post some pics of them both

unless that tank is considerably high then it is no where near 80g
what are the dimensions? as a 3x1x1 will only be around 80Litres

spotted tilapias (Tilapia mariae) are generally an aggressive species so if you have one being bullied the Only option is to rehome one

 

[welshy9]

Must be 80 liters then srry now good at maths lol

 

[Davo86]

Must be 80 liters then srry now good at maths lol

well 80L is around 21US Gallons and even for 1 Adult you will be needing a tank around 208 L (55 US gallons) Minimum

 

[welshy9]

ill take a pic of it , that way it would be better for you to see

 

[thomasp9021]

hi welshy i have these fish and they spawn reguarly but when not spawning the female generally stays out of the way the thing is she cant do that in a tank that size plus are you sure you have a pair as apposed to just 2 males
photos of them could help