Problems With Firemouth & Bolivan Rams

[Carey27]

So my tank's been up and running for 5 months now. Fish have been doing great and cohabitating nicely. I just added a firemouth cichlid about a week ago and and he has been harrassing my two rams.

Prior to adding the firemouth the rams were territorial and each would have their own side of the tank to roam and would occassionally meet in the center of teh tank and ram each other. Since the firemouth has been added he has kinda chased the rams into one side of the tank where they hide in the vegetation (Note the firemouth does not bother the tigers at all). I wouldn't have a problem if the fish settled in and roamed in their respective areas, but the rams are sedentary and only come out from hiding when i feed them.

The firemouth is ~3" and the two Rams are ~ 2" I was knew that firemouths have a slightly aggressive temperament, but read that usually only happens during spawning and that they can be good community fish.

Any advice or tips on getting the fish to play well together?

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Fish:
5 Tiger Barbs
2 Bolivan Rams
1 Firemouth
1 Monarch pleco (told it might be a cat)


Tank Specs:
30 Gallon Tank planted tank
Sand substrate
pH = 7.0
NH4 ~ 0
Bi-Weekly 20% Water Changes during cleanings

 

[DiscusKeeper403]

Hey,

What I think is possibly going on is that the firemouth and the rams territories are over laping. Re-arrange the tank, make sure you have a bunch of little parts in the tank that could make a good little territory as in caves, flower pots a rock ect. When you introduce a new cichlid always re arrange the tank so the old cichlids won't go harrasing the new one, they will be pre-ocupied with finding a new territory themselves (normally)

Firemouths are going to be more agressive then Bolivian Rams, i've seen some pretty nasty ones. If the aggresive behavior keeps going on then just re-home him.

 

[raptorrex]

humm its odd that a Firemouth should be aggressive, though i have only had one for a few months. i have 2 Bolivian Rams, they hassle each other, but the Firemouth seems to get on with everyone. the Blue Acara will chase it every so often, but thats it!

 

[ox5477]

It might have been the rams as the initial agressors as they were in the tank first and had their territories set up. When the fm came in, they prob mounted an initial protest but when the fm realized it was bigger, it fought back. fm may not typically be that aggressive but they are still cichlids and each fish can have a different personality, some more agressive than others..... so you may have just found a bully. The best thing to do is prob change the decorations around as discuslova said. If this still doesnt work, id say rehome the fm and let things return to the way they were. the 30G may be too small for the three fish co-habitate. This may work in some instances but if you have three aggressive presonality fish, than it will be hard pressed to work

 

[Carey27]

Thanks for all the tips. I will move the decorations around tonight after work and see how that goes. Hopefully it will diffuse the situation.