Apisto Juruensis

[Jeremy_SirenaAQUAscapers]

Hello all,
Myself (Jeremy) along with my girlfriend (Sirena) are beginning hobbyists in the world of aquascaping and fish keeping.
We recently upgraded from our cold water tank to a tropical tank.
Our 70L tank is home to a lovely apisto named Geronimo, and he/she/they is/are an absolute cutie, however Geronimo seems to be harassing another tank member, a blue balloon ram named Bussin. This aggression includes stalking behavior/pursuing, butting/ramming and possible fin nipping (although no clear evidence of damage) - I tried to attach a video but it wouldn't let me (
Whilst we were told that there wouldn't be any issues with aggression, it seems like there are issues.
We were just asking for some advice
a. is this aggression likely damaging for our balloon ram
b. is this aggression normal
c. can we take steps to lessen the aggression
d. are apistos usually aggressive

Thanks so much for reading, we really appreciate it,
Regards,
Jeremy, Sirena and Geronimo

 

[Mike Wise]

We were just asking for some advice

First welcome to the forum. That said, even without seeing Geranimo, my guess is that it is not really A. juruensis. This is a very rarely imported species. My guess is that it is A. alpahuayo, which is often sold as A. juruensis.

a. is this aggression likely damaging for our balloon ram

Possibly; balloon rams, due to the genetic modifications in the body, are not especially fast, agile swimmers.

b. is this aggression normal

It certainly can be. Apistos (and Rams) are cichlids, and like most cichlids can become very territorial. Usually it doesn't create a problem if the one fish can leave the other's territory. Your tank is a particularly large and if not properly laid out to have territorial boundaries an apisto can consider the entire tank its territory.

c. can we take steps to lessen the aggression

Yes, you have to provide visual boundaries that separate territories in the tank. Do a search here about territorial boundaries. Definitely provide good places to hide, too.

d. are apistos usually aggressive

Most apistos are not overly aggressive if properly housed in an adequately-sized aquarium. They typically ignore fish not in their territory. The trick is to provide both cichlids a territory of their own.

 

[Yvonne G]

Hi, and welcome!