Trouble with firemouths

[kyuubi3160]

I have a 55 gallon long tank with a firemouth cichlid, a peacock eel, and a pleco. About a week ago I purchased another firemouth of the opposite sex to try and make a pair. The female was the original fish in my tank and is about 3 inches long, the male that I introduced was not even a quarter inch smaller but the female chased it relentlessly to the point that I moved the female to my other 55 gal tank to keep it from killing the male.

Today I tried to put the female back into the tank with the male firemouth and after sparring for about 3 minutes the female gave up, but the male chased it constantly and now I have had to removed him.

My tank is lightly planted and has two caves made from piles of large rocks as well as two fake tree stumps to hide under. Can anyone give me advice on how to introduce the two so that they can coexist or will I need to keep them in the separate tanks permanently?

 

[Bully405Customz]

You could try removing both of them, rearranging the tank then introduce both of them back into the tank at the same time.

 

[TheBlackSloth]

That's what i would do in your case remove both fish COMPLETELY rearrange the tank and introduce them both back in.

 

[TheBlackSloth]

Also put more pots on the tank so they have more territories.

 

[IvanMike]

Also try throwing some convicts in and/or a couple more firemouths. Convicts and firemouths make good tankmates and there's nothing like a breeding pair of convicts to chill out an aggressive FM male....

 

[5x5]

I've had two firemouths over the course of the last year and they couldn't have been more diffierent.

The first one was ridiculously aggressive and terrorized and chased almost every fish it saw (except the Convict). The second one probably could have functioned in a community tank, since it never bothered a single tankmate. They were approximately the same age, but I never sexed them, so I don't know if its a gender thing or just the individual personality of the fish.

Good luck. I agree that Convicts are good tankmakes from my experience.

 

[kyuubi3160]

Thanks for the help! I removed both of them and rearranged the entire tank. I also put in some more rocks and a small pvc pipe. I put them back in and the female started bullying the male again but it managed to get to a hiding place and it seems to be doing a little better than before. I also tried putting my 5 inch rainbow shark in to keep the female in her place and he immediately set up a territory and kept the female away so hopefully she will calm down a bit. I am planning on putting in some more plants and a couple pots today, hopefully everyone can get along.

 

[severum mama]

If you're already having aggression problems, I would NOT suggest adding additional cichlids into the mix. Dither or target fish are a much better idea IMO. I agree that cons typically make good tank mates for FM's, but keeping pairs of each in a 55, IMO, will most likely not work in the long term no matter how much you have broken up lines of sight. As far as Central American cichlids go, a 55 really isn't all that much space for claiming territories. A single FM and a single con would be fine in there, but not pairs.

 

[kyuubi3160]

Well the female is still harassing the male constantly and patrols the entire tank so I'm going to just keep them separated. Thanks for the help but I seem to have gotten one ornery girl!

 

[TheBlackSloth]

Kill her! she deserves no place In. The world.

 

[HUKIT]

Kill her! she deserves no place In. The world.

Wow...you win the award for the most worthless post of the day, way to be helpful!

I would use a tank divider made from egg crate, conditioning the fish to see each other. Keep that for a couple weeks then slowly remove it. I do this with the majority of my fish since it's not uncommon for males to kill females and vice versa when one party wants to mate and the other is unwilling or not accepted.

Lastly how are you sexing these fish, firemouths are extremely difficult to sex at that size?

 

[Aquadestroyer]

Yea not good advice at all

 

[IvanMike]

the egg crate divider method is THE way to go. It can be cut rather easily with a good wire cutter, and you can even use some careful cutting to make it hold pretty fast to the plastic rim of the tank. Using some big rocks all the way around the base on either side helps keep it stable on that end. Put the aggressive fish in the smaller area - this helps humble them a bit at times.