Fishkeeping - Mirror in the fishtank

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Mirror in the fishtank

I have been having problems with a hyper-territorial green terror in my 75
gal tank, he killed a gymnogeophageous meridonalis, a jaguar guapote, two
plecostomus and a synuspillum, chewed up two severums and a red devil so
badly they had to be removed, beaten up with no tails.

Thing is, I like this green terror a lot. My girlfriend likes it even more,
mistakenly thinking it's a female, she named it Brigid for the Celtic
Goddess of war. So I want to keep it, therefore the obvious answer to trade
him in or flush him isn't an option, at least until everything else fails..
I want to exhaust every other option first.

So I've been trying various methods to curb his aggression. I put in
several silver dollars as dithers, he chased them for a while but when he
realised he couldn't catch them just gave up and now ignores them. I put in
a couple of mbuna (a cynotilapia afra and 2 demosoni) and he chases them
occasionally but still picks on the other weaker fish more (usually
targeting one at a time). I put in a pair of convicts hoping they would set
up a territory and be able to defend it from him, which could absorb alot of
aggression, but he's been able to prevent them from settling in anywhere and
persecutes the male mercilessly. I put a large Oscar in the tank hoping he
would be able to keep the peace (this has worked before), but even though it
was twice his size, the Green Terror quickly intimidated him and now the
Oscar is sulking on the bottom, refusing to eat.

Finally I tried an old trick and put a little mirror from my neighbors
cockatiel cage in the tank. This has finally seemed to work to some extent.
The Green Terror spends hours squaring off with the mirror, posturing in
front of it, wagging his tail, swiming around and a round it, and just
staring at it sullenly from behind a rock (the mbuna and the female convicts
also freak out on it). He finally saw a face he was scared of.

My question now is, will the mirror leach any metals or glue into the tank
which could hurt the fish? Can I leave it in there for a few hours a day or
not? It doesn't seem to work as well when taped to the outside of the tank
but I could do that as second tier alternative.

Any other ideas on reducing this guys aggression would be welcome too.

Jr

Mirror in the fishtank

"Big Dummy" wrote in message
. net...

SNIP!

Any other ideas on reducing this guys aggression would be welcome too.
==========================
I'm trying to picture the stress, fear and suffering going on in this tank.
For the sake of compassion can't you at least remove the other fish to
another tank since they cannot escape on their own as they would in the
wild? Or remove the green terror to a tank of it's own? How can you watch
such suffering and torture of this fish's victims? :-(
--

Koi-Lo.... frugal ponding since 1995...
Aquariums since 1952
~~~ }((((o ~~~ }{{{{o ~~~ }(((((o

Mirror in the fishtank

Would you put a wolf in the chicken house and hope he would reform and
ignore the chickens? I guess is no.

Same thing as fish. If he reguard something as food or competor, he
will go after it, no matter what you do. It takes millions of years to
form such things. You can not change it in few days/weeks/months.

I have been having problems with a hyper-territorial green terror in my 75
gal tank, he killed a gymnogeophageous meridonalis, a jaguar guapote, two
plecostomus and a synuspillum, chewed up two severums and a red devil so
badly they had to be removed, beaten up with no tails.

Thing is, I like this green terror a lot. My girlfriend likes it even more,
mistakenly thinking it's a female, she named it Brigid for the Celtic
Goddess of war. So I want to keep it, therefore the obvious answer to trade
him in or flush him isn't an option, at least until everything else fails..
I want to exhaust every other option first.

So I've been trying various methods to curb his aggression. I put in
several silver dollars as dithers, he chased them for a while but when he
realised he couldn't catch them just gave up and now ignores them. I put in
a couple of mbuna (a cynotilapia afra and 2 demosoni) and he chases them
occasionally but still picks on the other weaker fish more (usually
targeting one at a time). I put in a pair of convicts hoping they would set
up a territory and be able to defend it from him, which could absorb alot of
aggression, but he's been able to prevent them from settling in anywhere and
persecutes the male mercilessly. I put a large Oscar in the tank hoping he
would be able to keep the peace (this has worked before), but even though it
was twice his size, the Green Terror quickly intimidated him and now the
Oscar is sulking on the bottom, refusing to eat.

Finally I tried an old trick and put a little mirror from my neighbors
cockatiel cage in the tank. This has finally seemed to work to some extent.
The Green Terror spends hours squaring off with the mirror, posturing in
front of it, wagging his tail, swiming around and a round it, and just
staring at it sullenly from behind a rock (the mbuna and the female convicts
also freak out on it). He finally saw a face he was scared of.

My question now is, will the mirror leach any metals or glue into the tank
which could hurt the fish? Can I leave it in there for a few hours a day or
not? It doesn't seem to work as well when taped to the outside of the tank
but I could do that as second tier alternative.

Any other ideas on reducing this guys aggression would be welcome too.

Jr

Mirror in the fishtank

RBP's?

"Sean" wrote in message
...
So I've been trying various methods to curb his aggression. I put in
several silver dollars as dithers, he chased them for a while but when
he
realised he couldn't catch them just gave up and now ignores them.

Heh, remove the silver dollars and put in 7-8 young RBPs. He'll learn
fear
soon enough ;)

Sean

Mirror in the fishtank

"Koi-Lo"
"Big Dummy" wrote
SNIP!

Any other ideas on reducing this guys aggression would be welcome too.
==========================
I'm trying to picture the stress, fear and suffering going on in this
tank.
For the sake of compassion can't you at least remove the other fish to
another tank since they cannot escape on their own as they would in the
wild? Or remove the green terror to a tank of it's own? How can you
watch
such suffering and torture of this fish's victims? :-(

Give me a break! As opposed to the constant bliss and peace of nature I
suppose?

I gather from your nom-de plume you are more familiar with Koi and other
pond fish and perhaps aren't familiar with keeping fish such as cichlids,
but there is always at the least the potential of serious aggression going
on in Cichlid tanks (most Cichlid species anyway). Same with a lot of other
popular aquarium species: scat, puffers, clown knife, many catfish, etc.
etc. It's a fact of life.

I've been keeping cichlids for 20 years. In that time 95% of the time my
tanks have been peaceful, hardly "terrorized" any more than fish are
terrorized by being kept in a tank to begin with. With potentially
territorial species such as I'm dealing with now finding a good initial
balance is difficult, in this case I seem to have a particularly aggressive
specimen. Once you have the balance established there is usually no more
serious aggression unless something else changes it (like one of the fish
grows much faster than the others or a mated pair forms for example)

For that matter I've kept Green Terrors in Cichlid community tanks before
with no problems. One problem is the fish sold under this trade name
include at least two major regional subspecies or morphs and probably
several individual species. I'm guessing the one we have is an unusually
territorial example, or it could just be his individual personality.

Anyway, I'd appreciate helpful responses instead of hand-wringing or
sanctimony. For what it's worth, the fish that were killed were done in
when I was out of town, the injured have been removed, the rest are holding
their own currently and if they start to show signs of injury they will be
removed as well.

--

Koi-Lo.... frugal ponding since 1995...
Aquariums since 1952
~~~ }((((o ~~~ }{{{{o ~~~ }(((((o

Mirror in the fishtank

"fish lover" wrote in message
Would you put a wolf in the chicken house and hope he would reform and
ignore the chickens? I guess is no.

Same thing as fish. If he reguard something as food or competor, he
will go after it, no matter what you do. It takes millions of years to
form such things. You can not change it in few days/weeks/months.

I have been having problems with a hyper-territorial green terror in my
75

No frankly to compare your analogy, it's a wolf in the wolf house, with a
couple of cape buffalo, a leopard and an elephant. Convicts, Red Devils,
Mbuna, even Oscars are all territorial. And yet while it might be news to
you it is possible to establish peaceful community tanks with any of those
species, given enough space and correct management.

DB

Mirror in the fishtank

"Big Dummy" wrote in message
om...
RBP's?

Big teeth...nasty rep...hunt in packs...red on the belly...

Sean

Mirror in the fishtank

red belly perona
nikku

"Big Dummy" wrote in message
om...
RBP's?

"Sean" wrote in message
...
So I've been trying various methods to curb his aggression. I put in
several silver dollars as dithers, he chased them for a while but when
he
realised he couldn't catch them just gave up and now ignores them.

Heh, remove the silver dollars and put in 7-8 young RBPs. He'll learn
fear
soon enough ;)

Sean

Mirror in the fishtank

Capiche

Yeah, in a pack they can be dangerous, their teeth seem to be able to take
chunks out of other fish. I've had them get bullied by cichlids too though
frankly, keep in mind they share the same habitat with many cichlid species,
some of which (Cichla Oceleris?) prey on rbp, as well as vice versa

DB

"Nikki" wrote in message
...
red belly perona
nikku

"Big Dummy" wrote in message
om...
RBP's?

"Sean" wrote in message
...
So I've been trying various methods to curb his aggression. I put in
several silver dollars as dithers, he chased them for a while but
when
he
realised he couldn't catch them just gave up and now ignores them.

Heh, remove the silver dollars and put in 7-8 young RBPs. He'll learn
fear
soon enough ;)

Sean

Mirror in the fishtank