German Blue Aggression

[BigDaddy]

Okay... I had two pairs of German Blues in two seperate 20 and 25 gallon tanks.

I recently started up a 75, and I put all 4 rams in. Right away, the pecking order started... male vs. male, female vs. female... the male from the one tank chasing the female from the other and vice versa

I'm surprised that there has been this much aggression in a 75 gallon tank. I'm talking about locking lips and serious hits to the eyes...

It's day two, and things are a little better than yesterday. If they keep this up, should I intervene?

 

[Starbuck]

Hi BigDaddy!

Yes - before it comes to sincere wounds I´d say you should intervene meaning separate them.
I too have a couple of blue rams and once a while the male starts chasing the female agressively throughout the tank especially after spawning and finally giving up breeding. This behaviour continues for about 1-2 weeks. The female fades in color and is very shy except at feeding-times.
After 2 weeks the male changes his behaviour towards his mate and everything seems to be alright again.
Whether these changes in behaviour are correlated with the spawning cycles I don´t know but that might be possible.
Good luck!

 

[Randall]

Mikrogeophagus ramirezi

Hello BigDaddy,

Are your Mikrogeophagus ramirezi alone in their 75-gallon tank? Adding a slew of dither fish may improve the social situation.

Good luck!

Randall Kohn

 

[BigDaddy]

Things have calmed down now... I guess it was just some pecking order going on. The one male has now "coloured down" to submissive coloring, and while the odd chase happens, it's just the little 4 inch "get out of my way" chase.

The tank is well planted, with 3 schools of tetras 6 individals each school, 4 keyholes and a pair of apisto. panduro

A couple of otos and SAE's for the cleanup crew

I have to tell you though.. while rams are usually quiet little buggers... you should could tell they were cichlids the other day!