Suggestions for target fish?

[tjudy]

:?
I have a male Pel. t. 'nyete' that is just terrorizing the female in the tank. The tank is a 40 gallon with a lot of planted driftwood pieces. There are a lot of hiding places for her, but he seems to seek her out. She is getting pretty roughed up.

I placed three 2"yellow congo tetras in there as dither/targets, but he is not chasing them at all. I do not really want to put a another krib in there (mostly because I do not have an extra other than really small ones) as a target. Any ideas on a target species other than other kribs that a male teaniatus will chase?

 

[Richgrenfell]

I usually don't use targets when aggression becomes that big of a problem. When I was working with A. sp. maulbruter, the male simply beat the tar out of the female any chance he got. Much like your male krib he sought her out to do so. I took him and put him in a breeder net, for about 3 weeks. After that time the female had begun to regard the tank as her territory and she was able to keep the male in line from that point. Soon after, they spawned. Doesn't always work, but it does most of the time. If you'd rather use dithers, i always found danios (the giant ones are pretty cool) to be great ones. They are quick, and generally stick to the top layers of the water column. Bear in mind though that quick fish are more than able to eat fry as well! I also like to use rummy nose tetras, but they are hard to find in good shape.

Rich

 

[Randall]

Pelv. taen. "Nyete"

Dear Ted,

If your male is overly hostile toward the female, it may be because she is not receptive to spawning. Like Rich suggests, it's propably a good idea to split them up for 3-4 weeks to give her a chance to overcome stress, mature somewhat and ripen. After a month or so, they can be reintroduced with, hopefully, better results.

In this particular instance, dither introduction may or may not help the situation.

Good luck!

Randall Kohn

 

[Sam]

Target Sugestion

This is a weird suggestion, but you could try one of the smaller African knife fish as a target. Its worked for me with some of my Pv. taeniatus and my Steatocranus tinanti. They're big enough not to get hurt to bad, but won't hurt your cichlids. Remove them when the fry hatch though. Hope this helps.