Time out tank?

[squirrilah fish]

I've heard many reference a time out tank.
I do keep a side tank that I use as quarantine and hospital.
I also have it set up to remove any male that turns out to be too aggressive.
Today I took out my albino socolofi. All the other fish were gathered at the other end of the tank, while he had the whole other side to himself.
I took him out, and now everyone is swimming like crazy, picking at each other. It appears a new hierarchy is being established.
I have thought about getting rid of the socolofi, but wanted to ask about the nature of a "time out tank" is this one of this situations where I could just keep him in "timeout" and then see how he is going back in a few days?

 

[jandj1]

Just went through the same thing with our male kenyi after he had just about everyone else almost killed and like your socolofi had the other fish corraled in one area had claimed 3/4 of the tank. Took him out and put him in a bucket for a while and made a diy tank divider and divided off a small portion of the tank, he's doing good but has colored back to his juvy colors now(he was almost fully colored up too) but to save my other fish we did what we could with our space limitations. If we could have done it we woulda had a time out tank but don't have the space

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[squirrilah fish]

So have you removed the divider sense? I'm wondering what he's going to be like when I put him back in.
My tank is mostly Juvi's so eventually they will all match or outgrow him. He's not even full grown yet either.
I guess it's one of those wait and see things.
My hope is when I put him back he will be knocked down a peg or two. But if he's the same I'll have to just rehome him.

 

[jandj1]

No we haven't removed it yet. We're looking @ our other options besides rehoming or euthanizing because we really do like him and don't want to get rid of him, maybe we'll be able to get a couple female mbuna @ our lfs sometime soon turns out our only female mbuna is our rusty and we have 2 males our kenyi and our red zebra (the other 2 are a jewel and a livingstonii).

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[jandj1]

Just wondering how the situation with your socolofi is going?

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[squirrilah fish]

He's still in time out. There's a noticeable difference in the tank dynamic, it's much better, I'm going to put him back, but if it goes back to how it was he will be going bye bye.

 

[jandj1]

Yea the dynamic in our tank has changed since isolating our kenyi.. who knows maybe your socolofi will be different if you leave it long enough in "time out" ... one thing i have learned of african cichlids is that you learn something new about them everyday and they are full of surprises.

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[squirrilah fish]

My tank is still growing too. So the Socolofi will be one of the smaller ones eventually. He has been pretty timid in isolation. Once some of my other fish grow larger the dynamics will swing again. One of the joys of an all male tank. The hierarchy is always changing as they grow.

 

[squirrilah fish]

Moved him back over today. I picked up some neon blue chiwindis, and needed my QT tank to grow them out.

He's only been back in for a few hours. So far he's trying to go back to his old ways, but the other fish are behaving the way they did when he was gone, utilizing the whole tank, and not really caring. The Socolifi is chasing fish out of his "area" he's claimed, but they're quick to come back around so well see how it goes.

I expect some fights and some territorial conflicts which is fine, but if it gets to the point where he's claimed 2/3 of the tank, and pushed everyone to one side again i think I'll just rehome him.

It's a tough discussion because
A) I really like him, he's gorgeous
B) I have fish right now that definitely will be dominate over him, as soon as they reach good size.

We will see...

 

[jandj1]

I know how you feel. Our kenyi was one of the first africans we got and he is beautiful so we want to keep, him he seems calmer now (he's been in isolation for almost 2 weeks now) and during my last wc he didn't even try to bite me (which has happened) so hopefully soon we ca reintroduce him

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[squirrilah fish]

Ya Kenyi's are mean, I use to breed them. I had one male kill 3 females in the same day.

 

[squirrilah fish]

Just an update, time out tank was a great idea. Haven't had any problems sense the Socolofi has been back in. In fact everyone seems to be getting along. Utilizing the whole tank. And happy.

 

[Chi_Cichlid]

Hey squirrilah, just curious, how long did you keep the Socolofi in time out?

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[squirrilah fish]

Like 5 days I think

 

[Chi_Cichlid]

Okay thanks. I'm anticipating having to move some out to time out once my order comes in

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