Introduction and problem with Apisto aggression

[FishMachell]

Hi all, been keeping tropical fish for about a year now, still a lot to learn but loving it. Current set up is 90 litres / 23 US gallons with 7 black ruby barbs, 1 clown pleco and 2 juvenile apisto cacatouides. Moderate - heavily planted tank with three caves and bogwood, mix of gravel and sand substrate. Never had any issues with aggression before, the barbs are usually well behaved and only bicker among themselves. The apistos are from a mating pair (sadly lost the parents earlier this year), so I ended up with three male and one female juvenile. Donated two of the males to my LFS as they were starting to fight, but have noticed recently that both the remaining male and female apisto are getting nasty with the barbs. They're both coloured up but the male is certainly still a juvenile (no big head yet). Just wondering what I can do about this - will they calm down as they grow up or will they get worse? The original apisto parents were fine with the barbs apart from protecting the fry so this new aggression is a bit of a mystery for me.

 

[Mike Wise]

Welcome to the forum. It appears that your cacatuoides want to breed and are setting up a breeding territory - prossibly the entire tank. Your best bet is to remove the cichlids to their own tank. People on this forum for any time have heard my mantra: a community tank is not a breeding tank.

 

[FishMachell]

Hey, thanks for the reply and your advice. This is disappointing as previous advice / research has suggested the apistos were generally suited to community tank even if breeding. However, unless they spontaneously calm down soon or someone can offer me solid alternative advice to solve the problem I will remove them as I don't want any stressed fish!