Extremely territorial German Blue Ram?

[coolfishguy12]

I got four GBRs three days ago, one male and three females.

The male is obviously dominant, he claims his space but he's "friendly"about it. Two of the females are fine as well, they just swim around and don't really bother anyone.

One of the females is extremely aggressive. She hides in a space between the castle ornament and bubble stone and attacks anyone who comes close. I noticed this yesterday but it's only gotten worse today.

Will she calm down once she gets more used to her surroundings? What should I do about her?


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[ppo8820]

I doubt it. Some fish are just very aggresive. I have an angel fish who is similar in that she tolerates no one in her tank except 2 small endler guppies, which is odd. She bites and chases everything else I try and add.

 

[ppo8820]

Since you already have 3, I would return her to the store and tell them she is just too territorial. That or she may hurt or overly stress your other fish, which I am sure you do not want.

 

[jetajockey]

Are you sure she doesn't have eggs in there?

 

[coolfishguy12]

Definitely no eggs, I just got them the other day.


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[PNWaquarist]

I've heard of this happening before with a male and two females. The male had paired with one of the females and the other was harassed.

I would either remove the aggressor or the fish that are on the receiving end of the aggression. It's best to keep GBRs in pairs, not harems, and they tend to pair on their own. "Arranged marriages" tend to not work.

 

[Brookster123]

I agree in removing the odd girls out.. I put up a thread a while ago of my 2 females doing battle.. a month later I only have 1 left...

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[coolfishguy12]

I'm going to return the aggressive fish to the LFS, it's hard to tell what they'll do because none have paired with the male.

 

[jetajockey]

I dunno, I'd probably keep them in there unless they are hurting one another. The rams I've kept all did this especially when they got to be breeding age, but as long as they aren't harrassing all the other fish in the tank and are just defending an area, the others always learned to stay out of their way.

I put 8 EBRs in a 40b together initially and they squabbled for few days but once they got their little heirarchy figured out they were fine.

I have moved fish that claimed a territory and paired off if they are being unreasonable or actually damaging the other fish.

 

[coolfishguy12]

I ended up returning her to the pet store and exchanged it for another. The tank seems much more peaceful now.



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