Please Help...fighting Rainbow Fish

[modern]

Hi All,

Sorry for the same topic twice...but it was recommended that I try posting here in the Rainbow Fish forum in addition to the original forum that I posted this in.

I'm seeking your advice because all of a sudden we have 2 male rainbow fish that are being very agressive with each other. Let me preface by saying that we have a school of 6 juvenile rainbows and 2 smaller furcatas that kind of hang out by themselves. They've all been together for around 2 months or so with no problems whatsoever (besides the occasional flare ups to prove dominance every once in awhile - but no aggression).

Well, last night we bought about an inch and a half rainbow (similar in size to the rest) and we had no idea what kind it was so it was difficult to tell if it was male or female. Brought it home...and with our lighting discovered it's a female Boesmani. The store had it labelled as something completely different and you couldn't see the faint blue front half there but it's obvious at home.

Anyway, now that we've put her in...our male Boesmani and male Turquoise have not let up. They've been circling and nipping in a frenzy and were starting to lose some scales and smaller bits of fins. I panicked and tried to feed them to side-track them...didn't work. We stuck the net in the tank a couple of times (didn't chase them with it) just to see if that would distract them...didn't work. Ultimately we completely turned off the lights and that seemed to work at least to temporarily stave off the fighting.

My question...is it the female we put in last night that's causing all this? Should we take her out of the tank to bring peace back to our tank. I don't want to see any of our fish under stress like this!!!!!

Your answers would be most appreciated as we are trying to figure out a solution soon. Thanks in advance.

 

[parker313]

Yes, she's causing it. You're either going to have to get more females or return the one. While rainbows are generally considered peaceful fish, they really need to be kept in the proper m/f ratio, which is hard b/c most lfs only carry the prettier males. I had a "pack" of Boesemani and Australian rainbowfishes that got my 3 turquoise rainbows, an angelfish and even a severum! My lfs didn't have any females, so I had to return all of my rainbows b/c they killed anything else I tried to put in with them.

 

[modern]

Thank you for responding! We ended up taking back the female. When I spoke to our LFS over the phone they said that it sounded like the males were fighting so bad that it may result in one of them dying if I didn't remove the female. That was yesterday...since then we've kept the lights very low (which seems to work in chillin em out more) and keep an eye on them if we turn the lights on full strength. The LFS said it may take a few days for their hormone levels to drop back down so as long as we monitor them everything should be ok.

We were just surprised because our rainbow "pack" has been very peaceful so far. We have them with a couple of gouramis, 2 dojo loaches, 2 male cherry barbs, an albino pleco, and even 2 bamboo shrimp and they've been one big happy family! Guess we just had all males so there's just been the typical dominance rivalry every once in awhile but it's just some flaring for a bit. Never nipping or other similar behavior.

Hopefully this will make them get back to their old selves. Although after wondering if our Turquoise was a female for forever...we now know it's definitely a male! It was the first time we had seen it showing it's coloring like that.