Salvini on a rampage!

[joel.uejio]

Hi folks,

So I have a 60g tank with: male salvini, small firemouth, small polleni, 3x upside down catfish, 6x rainbowfish (5x red, 1x boesemani). It seems my sal (who I really like) has gone to war! Here are the recent events:

- Few days ago started to hear big splooshing sounds at night
- This morning found him chewing on the remains of a dead bow (yuk)
- Just now, more splooshing

So, questions:
+ Is the sal taking out the bows as part of territorial aggression, or is he actually hunting them as prey?
+ Is there any reason to think he won't eliminate all the bows?

I have some places I could move the bows, so I might do that if it's looking like they're basically on a countdown to termination....

Thanks for any responses!

 

[The Zigman]

Years ago I had an evil Salvini...

I dont know what his problem was, but that was without a doubt the meanest fish I have ever had. He killed every other fish I put in that tank, including a pleco.

Once I tried adding a few new fish to the tank, and the evil monster was trying to attack them while they were still floating in the bag.

IMO, they are just a mean fish.

 

[joel.uejio]

I hear that....up to recently mine only went after similar-sized fish, but now is gunning for my bows. What's interesting, though, is that he has no interest at all in the smaller fm and smaller polleni....

Guess I'll monitor and adjust as needed.....I'm also seeing an interesting situation with the fm and polleni. The fm still has the chops to win when they have little fights, but the polleni is growing faster and starting to get a size advantage, so I'm pretty sure at some point soon the fm is going to get "served".

Thanks for the reply.

 

[abarilot]

Bummer! Just when you thought the tank had settled down the sal goes bazerk! Sorry never had any aggro fish so can't be of too much help. Good Luck!!!

 

[joel.uejio]

Yes, definitely a little tension happening in the tank, but I guess that's just part of keeping cichlids, ya? I did a little poking around and could only find 2 of 3 upside-down cats, so the 3rd might also have gone by the wayside.

Othar than these issues, though, I'm pretty happy with the tank -- just got a new camera, so I'll try to post some pics soon.

 

[steffish]

Pics would be great! Salvini are beautiful fish. Not bad in a planted tank. They make great parents. But mean, mean, mean.

 

[joel.uejio]

Pics

Pics! (Forgive the spots and algae)....

Taking a peek


Polleni always looking for a meal


On the prowl


Some more


Firemouth and bows


What are *you* looking at?


...notice how everyone in the tank has nipped fins except for Mr. Sal :shakehead:...

 

[joel.uejio]

Well, found another red rainbow shredded....yikes. It's now the 3 cichlids, 2-3 upside down cats, 3 red bows, and 1 boesemani bow. What's strange is that the boesemani seems to have somehow worked out something with the sal.

I say this because normally the sal doesn't allow any fish in the bottom half of the tank, but I've been seeing the boesemani down there hanging out....maybe my boesemani is a female and they have some kind of crazy romeo-and-juliet thing going on....????

I'm planning to move the red bows before they get chomped, but I'm tempted to try leaving the boes. in the tank and see what happens. Any one think that has a chance of working out?

I know that I could move the reds to my 55g with Congos and they would get along, but then I would be very overstocked, so I'm wondering if I should move them to my 75g with severums, texas, silver dollars, bn pleco, raphael cat -- how does that sound as a mix?

Thanks!

 

[sal123]

good looking sal

 

[jonclark96]

I would guess that you will continue to lose fish until you are down to either the sal or one of the polleni. 60G is tight for the sal and other cichlids, and once the polleni get some size on them, they can get quite aggressive. Hope they settle down for you soon.