Apistogramma Being Aggresive

[moscat1206]

Hello, i'm new to keep apistogramma and i buy 2 of them. I asked for male and female but they're still juvenile. First i'm not sure if they're really male and female (still about 1,5 inch). Can I identify them this early? And second, one is very aggresive to another. It keep chasing the other one when i feed sinking pellet. Eventhough i've given the food in two separate area. Any suggestion to reduce the aggresiveness? Because i'm afraid the other will be stressed

The non dominant apisto

The dominant apisto

 

[Mike Wise]

Welcome. First, realize apistos are cichlids. Like most cichlids they are territorial and aggressively protect their territory. Second, you have a bare tank and it appears to be small. Both mean the the less dominant fish, whatever sex it is, does not have a way to avoid the dominant fish that considers the tank its entire territory. So what to do? I hope this is a quarantine tank and not their permanent home. Either way you need to break up the line-of-sight in the aquarium so that there are visual boundaries between territories for each fish. Otherwise I fear that you will have to physically separate the 2 specimens or lose the subdominant fish to aggression.