Brichardis Terrorising The Whole Tank...

[Jinkz]

Really starting to get fed up with the behaviour of 3 of my Brichardis. One one side of my tank I have a breeding pair with fry and they keep to themselves and none of the other fish bother them. Other side there are 3 more Brichardis, a pair of Brevis, pair of Julies and 2 smaller albino Brichardis.

Over the last week I hadn't seen any of the Julies and while I've got used to hardly seeing them I still thought it pretty strange. Then yesterday was doing a water change and decided again to rescape a little as two of the Brichardis started to burrow under a large rock and was scared it might fall. Anyway, searched for the Julies and could only find one....stuck down right under the conch shells....alive but with his fins ripped to bits. Poor wee guy looks like he just doesn't want to be there. Still can't find the second Julie so have to suspect he's a goner and has been munched. As for the two albino Brichardis they're stuck right up the top of the tank, hanging around the spraybar....looks like they've got enough sense to keep away from the bigger Brichs and avoid most of the bullying.

Think the only thing I can do now is try to net the 3 bigger Brichardis and take them back to the LFS and leave myself with the breeding pair and the 2 albinos, who seem far more placid.

Anyone with any thoughts, advice etc?

 

[kiriyama]

Get shot of the extra ones, up to you if you want to keep the "pair", if they are ok with tankmates. . . .
Cheers, Sean

 

[elisew]

Get shot of the extra ones, up to you if you want to keep the "pair", if they are ok with tankmates. . . .
Cheers, Sean

+1

Sorry to hear about the difficulties, the brichardis are nasty sods which is why I returned mine to the shop

 

[Jinkz]

Get shot of the extra ones, up to you if you want to keep the "pair", if they are ok with tankmates. . . .
Cheers, Sean

+1

Sorry to hear about the difficulties, the brichardis are nasty sods which is why I returned mine to the shop

Thanks guys...basically confirmed what I already knew but didn't really want to face doing. They are nasty sods but gorgeous to watch so getting rid of them will not be easy.

This morning I managed to net the two albinos and moved them over to my 100ltr tank....but that's temporary only. I can't get near the LFS till next week so they'll have to stay in there till then and then I'll have to start stripping rocks out the 300ltr and try to catch the 3 Brichardis I need to get rid of. Problem I'm gonna have is trying to get them seperate from the breeding pair....I'll be in serious trouble if I mix them up and net the wrong ones...

 

[elisew]

Thanks guys...basically confirmed what I already knew but didn't really want to face doing. They are nasty sods but gorgeous to watch so getting rid of them will not be easy.

This morning I managed to net the two albinos and moved them over to my 100ltr tank....but that's temporary only. I can't get near the LFS till next week so they'll have to stay in there till then and then I'll have to start stripping rocks out the 300ltr and try to catch the 3 Brichardis I need to get rid of. Problem I'm gonna have is trying to get them seperate from the breeding pair....I'll be in serious trouble if I mix them up and net the wrong ones...

Not easy but to the benefit of the rest of the tankmates

Easiest way to net the right ones is to drop the water level, remove rocks and leave the fish to get 'comfortable' again for a little while, then use something like a tray or one of the glass sliders that some tanks have and use it as a partition to keep the nasty ones separate. Hopefully then you`ll be able to net and remove them much easier and won`t get the wrong ones

 

[myrtle]

Have you suceeded in removing the terrorists?! As beautiful as they are I think they are really only suited to species tanks unless you are lucky and get some placid ones like your others seem to be. I hope they continue to stay placid!

 

[minnnt]

Mine were placid, never ever shown any aggression towards anything. This is why i am so shocked when i read of other members having trouble with them. Mine were even in with community fish and never did anything to any of them.

I would divide the tank as Elisew said. I have my main tank divided at the moment with a piece of perspex due to breeding HRP's having fry. This will help you catch the correct ones and may possibly help with not upsetting the breeding pair too much.

My fairies were a pain to catch, they jump a fair height to avoid capture.

 

[kiriyama]

Nowt more frustrating than fish jumping over the net, in the end I bought two HUGE nets, one for steering them in and the other one like a huge sock, does the job. . . .

 

[Jinkz]

Have you suceeded in removing the terrorists?! As beautiful as they are I think they are really only suited to species tanks unless you are lucky and get some placid ones like your others seem to be. I hope they continue to stay placid!

Haven't had a chance to even try to net them yet, been so busy with work etc there was no chance to get to the LFS.

Had my hands in the tank the other night as they'd been burrowing around the rockwork so was replacing things, rearranging etc and generally had a good root around. Results are not good....2 x julies dead, female brevis now dead also. All that is left are the Brichs and the 3 nasties have now turned on the male Brevis...only thing keeping him going is his size and the fact he doesn't take any nonsense from them.

Decided that due to having the Brichs fry I'll wait another month or so then strip all the Brichs out, juveniles and adults and start again....shellies, cyps and some Calvus for sure....and no Brichs

 

[myrtle]

Sorry to hear that, my lfs is over run with them at the moment and they are breeding like crazy in their tanks (them and the bristlenose plecs!). Someone has obviously had a similar problem as you and the lfs now has 5 tanks full of brichardi and their fry plus the odd one that's jumped out into other tanks!

 

[kiriyama]

Sorry to hear you're having so much trouble with them . . .
I seen Brichardi and Leleupi ages ago so thought it would be a great idea to introduce a Brichardi into my tank, within an hour it had all the Mulites herded up in a corner and constantly attacked the Punk. Next morning straight back to LFS You live and learn, after recent events looks like we will both be starting over. . .

 

[Jinkz]

Sorry to hear that, my lfs is over run with them at the moment and they are breeding like crazy in their tanks (them and the bristlenose plecs!). Someone has obviously had a similar problem as you and the lfs now has 5 tanks full of brichardi and their fry plus the odd one that's jumped out into other tanks!

Yeah well, mine didn't go the easy way either....there's at least 60 odd fry in there and they're all growing..albeit slowly

Sorry to hear you're having so much trouble with them . . .
I seen Brichardi and Leleupi ages ago so thought it would be a great idea to introduce a Brichardi into my tank, within an hour it had all the Mulites herded up in a corner and constantly attacked the Punk. Next morning straight back to LFS You live and learn, after recent events looks like we will both be starting over. . .

I got some good news last night....my female Brevis is still alive Can't believe it as I hadn't seen her for at least a week and a few days ago when I was tidying up and re-scaping I had all but one shell out and in a big jug so I could clean the sand under where they'd been and I looked really hard for her, but couldn't find her so she was either stuck inside one of the shells I took out or she was in the remaining shell, with the male together....which would be a first as they're usually in 2 different shells.

Anyway, she came out last night and looks fine...no fin damage that I can see, she's eating also...so I'm well happy about that. Just hope now the remaining Brichs leave her alone.

 

[myrtle]

Fingers are crossed for you!