FM aggression

[ddiienno]

My one firemouth has decided to really bully the other firemouth should I seperate them or is this normal FM behavior. The larger one swims the tank while the other just kind of hangs in one spot by the filter

[jahonnimyfav101]

I would recomend a new tank(if u don't have one) my friend Strobe.is.Boss had a fire mouth but it also got bulled adventualy killed so if u do have a other tank get it ready and put it on there

[jahonnimyfav101]

Can I have a pick and tank size

[jahonnimyfav101]

*pic sry

[ddiienno]

Tank size is 29 gallons and they are only 2 in there. Sometimes they swim side by side and everything seems okay then I see the one really bullying the other and he just hangs by the top of the filter. First pic is of the guy getting bullied second is of the both of them

[jahonnimyfav101]

Yeah I'd wate. If fins are missing then I'd seperate them till they mature

[jahonnimyfav101]

Are they M and F

[ddiienno]

Still too young to tell but the one being bullied is much more colored but smaller. So I'm not sure.

[jahonnimyfav101]

Look at there anal fins if there pointy then it's male if it's female it's round

[ddiienno]

Looks to be two males to me then

[Fishy Smell]

If they are the only 2 fish in there, thats part of the problem. No other distractions, and they both want the whole tank, the less dominant one will probably end up getting killed.

If you want to keep both, you could try taking the more agressive one out for a couple of hours, add some other fish, a shoal of rosy barbs or gold barbs would be perfect with firemouths (or some bleeding hearts if you want to keep your stocking from similar geographical area), and a couple of reasonable sized catfish like hoplos or similar, and then move the decorations around and put the agressive one back.

Failing that, you could get rid of the aggressive one and add maybe a female convict or perhaps a rainbow cichlid instead, as the battle for dominance will be less amongst different cichlids (not two of the same type).

[ddiienno]

Okay thanks for the advice

[Rivers2k]

Originally Posted by jahonnimyfav101

Look at there anal fins if there pointy then it's male if it's female it's round

This isn't true for Fire mouths. All Firmouths fins are pointy. It is not easy to sex FM. You have to really know what you are looking for. Females are deeper bodied and males are a bit longer. The only way to really tell is to see the two different sexes together.

[ddiienno]

Males have long anal and dorsal fins as well like a red string it almost looks like but that doesn't come until maturity so it's tough to sex while juvenile I still can't really tell