Keyhole Behaviours

[Scrotius]

Hi all,
I have a 50G planted tank with 9 black widow tetras, 5 keyholes and 1 common plec.
I bought the keyholes as a group from one shop - apparently they had been there for 6 months together, they were very young, all about 1 1/2 inces except one that was a bit bigger.
I've had them for 5 months now and I think I have 2 males and 3 females - the 2 males are now more than twice the size of the other 3.

The problem is this; of the 2 males, the younger/smaller one has become very territorial and aggressive, he's always got his dorsal fin extended and a yellow/black colouration. Meanwhile the older dominant one is not being aggressive but has not claimed any particular part of the tank to be his territory either. The younger one stays in one part of the tank while the older one moves aruond, when they meet it gets very violent and I'm worried they'll get injured or jump out of the tank. The 3 females are comfotrable around the older cichlid but sometimes wander into the younger male's area - where they are chased off.
At the moment the males are about 3 inches long so have 1 or 2 inches left to grow. The tank is quite spacious and has plenty of objects that block line of sight - although they don't usually fight unless they are less than 6/7 inches apart.

My question is; this aggressive behaviour the younger male is displaying - is it a "phase" or is this going to be a persistent problem - and if so, is the older male likely to start acting the same. I get the impression that if both males claimed territories then they wouldnt bump into each other as much and it wouldnt be a problem, maybe this is wishful thinking. What are your thoughts?

Thanks for your help

 

[Wills]

Its quite unusual for Keyholes to be so aggressive, but I think you are right when the older male claims his territory it should settle down. One trick that people do is to re arrange the decor and then put the fish back in then hopefully they will both claim their own areas. Only other thing I can suggest is to add more Black Widows? More dithers might calm him down a bit as well.

 

[Scrotius]

Thanks Wills,
I have actually recently remodelled one half of the tank so maybe this has triggered the increased aggression(?). I am reluctant to add more black widows as they are much quicker and voracious feeders and tend to nick all the food!

 

[Wills]

Ah right that might be it? Did he claim it after the change around?

With the food, you could try getting flake for the tetras and some cichlid pellets for the keyholes? Even the sinking catfish pellets would do well, my keyholes used to love them

 

[Scrotius]

yeah he claimed it after the change, though it wasn't one of the areas i changed

about the food - the problem is that the tetras grew so fast that they are only slightly smaller than my female cichlids, so there's no food that i can buy that will discriminate, its a toughie I tried some of those catfish pellets, but even if the tetras cant eat them in one bite, they'll grab them and scurry off!

 

[snowflake311]

It is common for male to fight each other when females are around. You might have a pair and that will bring on the fights. But it should never be allowed to get to the point where one is scared in the corner.But a bit of face offs is normal.

 

[Scrotius]

ah, it definitely hasn't gotten to that point, they are well matched

since I posted the original thread, the larger cichlid has claimed a territory in a different part of the tank so they aren't scuffling as much anymore
looks like the problem has fixed itself

thanks for your comments guys