Apistogramma trifasciatas???

[LindaMC]

I have one male and two female trafasciatas in a 10 gallon planted tank, they are fairly new, I've had the male and one female for approximately 2 weeks now and had to remove the male and put him in my 29 gallon tank because he bit the females tail totally off, along with some of her fins. I thought if I added another female that this would help, but now he's chasing both of them. The first female, the one with no tail is hiding up ontop of the heater and won't come down, the other one is hiding from him whenever she can. Is this normal behavior for this speicies? I have a pair of agassiz red tails in my larger tank and although the male will sometimes chase the female, he's never hurt her and it's usually because she's invaded his area. Actually now, she's chasing him and just noticed a clutch of eggs on the side of a piece of driftwood. Anyway, is there anything I can do to stop this behavior from the male trifasciatas? Is it a juvenille thing, will he grow out of it before he ends up killing one of these females? Should I be concerned?

Thoughts, advice are greatly appreciated!
Linda

 

[Mike Wise]

A. trifasciata is a polygamous species. Males easily claim territories larger than your 10 and only want females who are ready to breed in their territory. What you are seeing is typical behavior. My suggestion: more hiding places or better yet a larger tank. Your aggies are acting normally, too.

 

[LindaMC]

I have a moss covered coconut hut and a clay pot in the 10 gallon, plus plants, hopefully the plants will grow in more soon but unfortuneatly another is not an option!

Thanks for the respose though, at least I know it's normal behavior.

 

[fishgeek]

when i had my trifasciata i had a small male that looked very much female , this obviously lead to more aggresion amongst these fish and intially i thought it was male on female aggression


andrew