Adding new pair to widow?

[davex776]

Hi,

I recently had a male Apisto cac die on me (mentioned in another thread here). Well it's been over a week since he died and the female hasn't shown any signs of disease, so I'm now starting to think about getting another pair. But my question is if I add a new pair (still cacs) will the widow female be automatically picked on? Or will they form a harem? Or does it just depend on the individual fish and it isn't possible to say?

I heard that harems are ok, but I would assume that all fish would be added at the same time in this scenario? I am planning on not adding the new caves until all fish are present so that there are no territories to be fought over.

Thanks,
Dave

 

[jase101]

the best you can do is minimise threats - as you said, don't put caves in until they are all acclimatised, or better still, redecorate the whole tank so the lone female doesn't have a 'home' advantage. ensure there's lots of cover for whichever fish becomes the sub, and keep an eye out for excessive bullying. i have had more failure than success with harems, but it really does depend on the fish in question.

 

[Mike Wise]

Redecorate before adding the new fish is the best policy. But before this, I strongly recommend quarantining any new fish for at least 2 - 4 weeks. I usually don't put new fish in breeding/community tanks until they have be quarantined for 6 weeks. Some say I'm paranoid; I say I'm careful.

 

[Apistomaster]

I regularly buy a pair to go with my widowed females so I have trios.

 

[davex776]

Thank you all very much for the tips!