Help! Aggression Problem!

[Loony Fish]

Alright, here is my tanks:
40 gallon:
1 rainbow shark,
1 small pleco,
1 small chocolate catfish,
1 discus,
and a few congo tetras

20 gallon:
a few assorted tetras (black tetras)
2 rainbow sharks
(i fixed my stock issues)

12 Gallon:
2 blue rams
about 8 baby black tetras

110 gallon:
10 archerfish
1 green terror
1 yellow lab
and 1 mono sabae.


ok, so here is the problem,
i woke up this morning because i heard gravel shifting and splashing.
my pleco and catfish are kind of chewing on each other!
i was thinking about moving 1 into the archer tank (the tank is not brakish and has a ph of 7.4-7.8)
what to do!? i don't want to get rid of one

 

[nmonks]

By "pleco and catfish" do you mean a common plec (Pterygoplichthys sp.) and a chocolate plec (Liposarcus scrophus)? If the answer is yes, then spilt them up, ASAP.

Large plecs are often highly territorial, and will fight. There are reliable reports of dominant individuals scraping the skin away from weaker fish, until the poor victim dies. A 40-gallon tank is simply too small for Pterygoplichthys, and pretty much borderline even for the much smaller Liposarcus scrophus.

Cheers, Neale

 

[Loony Fish]

By "pleco and catfish" do you mean a common plec (Pterygoplichthys sp.) and a chocolate plec (Liposarcus scrophus)? If the answer is yes, then spilt them up, ASAP.

Large plecs are often highly territorial, and will fight. There are reliable reports of dominant individuals scraping the skin away from weaker fish, until the poor victim dies. A 40-gallon tank is simply too small for Pterygoplichthys, and pretty much borderline even for the much smaller Liposarcus scrophus.

Cheers, Neale

no, i mean common pleco and rapheals catfish.

 

[nmonks]

As ever, avoid using common names. They don't mean much. Latin names good, common names garbage: remember!

In any case, if they're fighting over territory, then you'll need to split them up. Dorads are gregarious -- so keeping "a" Platydoras isn't fair; it needs pals of its own kind. I doubt its the aggressor here. The Pterygoplichthys almost certainly is, as these fish are notoriously protective of their burrows, in particular the males, who in the wild excavate burrows and guard the eggs. Dorads tend to be docile, though if harassed I dare say they will squeak and shuffle with the best of them. Still, long term the Pterygoplichthys is the one who'll take over, and you'll need to plan around that.

You could try adding some extra caves, and seeing if that settles things down. That'd be my first instinct (that, and buying a couple more Platydoras).

Cheers, Neale

no, i mean common pleco and rapheals catfish.

 

[Loony Fish]

i don't know, the catfish doesn't really mind...
they also stopped in the morning.
it's weird