Agressive Keyhole

[Scrotius]

Following on from my previous thread
http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/316766-keyhole-behaviours/
....

I've had 2 male Keyholes getting very territorial and fighting violently in my big tank, so i decided to move the less dominant one out and into my other smaller tank with all my rainbows and tiger barbs.
He's not showing much agression, but the others are understandably wary (he's 3 or 4 times the size of them).
He has lost his agressive colouration and adopted a slightly mottled scared colouration.
He's showing some territoriality, but mostly only to the large red rainbow.

From your past experiences, do you think he will become more settled once he realises none of the other fish are going to be as threat?
Will the other fish become used to him in time?
My theory is that he still feels theatened because he was used to being in a tank with similar sized agressive fish, now hes in with much smaller peaceful ones.

If I cant keep him in this tank then that means I have to give him away which I really dont want.

 

[snowflake311]

You never know with cichlids they do what they want. He should settel in and be ok with the other fish in a week or so. But once the others grow up you might have problems.

 

[Scrotius]

well the rainbows are pretty much fully grown - there are 8 of them
the barbs still have a way to go, but so does the Keyhole

by problems, do you mean problematic for him or the other fish? beacuse even fully grown, none of them are going to be close to his size

 

[snowflake311]

Problems being fights and chaseing. Things should be fine since the other keyholes are small. But when the others grow up things could go wrong if you get a pair. How big are these tanks?

It can take a week for cichlids to adjust to new tank mates. Most of the time after a week of some drama they will have established a pecking order and things should be fine. That is if the fish are of the same temperment.

When you say rainbows are you talking about rainbow cichlids or the rainbow fish that school and have a funny pointed head?

 

[Scrotius]

sorry! i meant rainbowfish not rainbow cichlids! I always refer to them as rainbows
they are v peaceful, the males are just a bit rowdy with each other in the mornings but nothing like cichlid battles

no, after this episode I will not be putting more than 2 cichlids in the same tank again

the tank he came from was 50G, the one I've had to use as his sanctuary is a 20G (with the rainbowfish) - bare minimum I know but I'd rather keep him than give him back to the shop and their sub-par conditions

 

[snowflake311]

You can have good luck keeping differant kinds of cichlids of the same temperment. But when you keep same kinds they can get a little bossy with eachother. It comes down to the fish and their personality.

 

[ChilliPepper]

My male Keyhole is pretty big now, but he gets picked on at feed times by my little Bolivian Ram! He's such a wuss He was the only survivior of a batch of '75p rescue fish from a well known pet chain'. The others died pretty quickly as they were too far gone, bless them. About 30 odd fish crammed into a tiny tank, not exactly good fish keeping. Anyway their last days were nice in a large tank! So yeah, my experience of a sole Keyhole adult is that he's pretty passive, but maybe he'd change if I introduced another Keyhole.

One of the things I like most about cichlids is their individual personalities and their interaction with each other. They are quite impossible to predict.

 

[Scrotius]

I had 5 at first and one was much bigger than the others, but then 1 of the smaller ones grew up fast and he's the troublemaker now - the one I had to move. The other 3 are still all much smaller than the largest. I think the small ones are all females

 

[snowflake311]

How bad was the fighting? Were any getting nipped? Where they always hiding? Because it is normal for
cichlids to chase a little. I would move stuff around in the bigger tank and add the large keyhole back in and see if things get better.

 

[Scrotius]

well the 2 large males each had their own territories
Cyril is the older one and the more dominant, Dewey is the same size but the underdog.
Dewey had a much smaller territory and chased the 3 females more agressively, Cyril was accepted by the females and rarely chased them.
Cyril would wander around the tank from time to time and if he crossed paths with Dewey they would fight, not nipping, they would stand off facing each other - gill flaring and all fins erect, then try and bite each other.
Every now and again one would have a would with scales missing. Cyril has still got a big scar on his head.
Neither males were hiding, but Dewey would try to avoid Cyril if he could (when he got close)

I had actually just remodelled half of the tank just before it started to get really heated. Dewey's teritory was unchanged when I made these alterations - Cyril hadn't really claimed anywhere before I started moving stuff.

 

[snowflake311]

I would Add him back to the tank. See how things go sometimes a time out helps alot.

 

[Scrotius]

ok, I'll try that in a couple of weeks, cheers