The Problem of Attacking a Female to Male on Nannacara Anomalas...

[Fikret Celik]

Hello, dear masters.

I took a couple of Nannacara Anomala again. My previous experiences were female fishes, male fish after ovulation were very beaten. Even once, the male Anomala is dead. Is this a general case for Anomalas? Or is it all about the character of the fish? Because when Anomala lays my female egg, I'll take out the man immediately.

I am very satisfied if your master informs me in this regard.

 

[Happyfins]

Certainly not the master but I have had females that just chase the male away from eggs but some seem to just want to kill the male rather than guarding their eggs. So I think it is the character of the fish.

 

[Mike Wise]

Females of N. anomala are very aggressive to any fish when they are guarding eggs/fry. If the tank is too small for the male to leave the female's brood territory he will be attacked. How large is your tank and how is it decorated?

 

[Fikret Celik]

Thank you, sir. My tank size 35*35*35. Full decorated.

 

[Ade205]

Hi Fikret.

If your measurements are in cm's then I feel your tank is to small if my experiences with this fish are anything to go by. One female mite just work, but I fear the male would be attacked and you'd almost certainly have to remove him, if you have two females then your tank is certainly to small as just one female require your entire tanks footprint for her territory while she's brooding. This is just my opinion, but in my only experience of spawning this fish the female was a killing machine once she had eggs. Was a large tank and the male had lots of space to get away as did other inhabitants, and trust me, they needed it. Dispite her small size, easily the most aggressive parental care of any dwarf cichlid I've spawned. The Discus in the tank were terrified of her! Every individual fish is different and maybe she was an exception, but I've heard so much about their aggression that I doubt it!

Ade.

 

[Fikret Celik]

Hello. Thank you very much for the answers. I bought at least 10 kinds of puppies from the dwarf American variety before. Only one Nannacara Anomala female fish killed a male fish three times larger than itself. For this reason, I opened this title.

 

[Tindomul]

Hi,

I would like to chime in. I have very limited experience. I have only been keeping this species for 8 or so months. I purchased six of these at first. Most of them died when I introduced an Apistogramma pair who appeared to be ill. Rookie mistake. I was left with an adult male. I purchased an additional 6. They went through quarantine. My plan was to quarantine all the Nanacaras until they were ready to be moved to my 75 gallon tank. Upon seeing how aggressive they were, I decided to leave them in their 20 gallon long aquarium.
When I received the 6 new Nanacaras, I allowed for 3 weeks quarantine. All the females appeared to be in breeding condition and where being very aggressive with one another. The 6 were in a smaller 10 gallon tank. I decided to introduce my lone male to the most mature looking female. The female and male courted, I saw eggs several times. Then I was forced to add a partition on the tank as she almost killed the male one night. He recovered and they were trying to court again. I removed the partition and everything happened the same way again. At some point I was forced to add the remaining 5 that were still in quarantine to my 20 gallon long. Somehow, this made it all better. The females were all very aggressive, but not just with one individual. All of them were attacking everyone. The male was attacked on occasion, but the attackers would get distracted. The younger males were fighting too much with my original male, so I decided to remove the two males. I am now left with 3 females and my original male, I think he killed the last male I had left behind. He was young and I thought it was a female.
So since March 2018 I have the 20 gallon, moderately planted tank with three females, and the original male. I observe lots of courting, the male chases females all the time. The females on occasion decide to defend territories and chase everyone. No one is getting physically hurt though. I don't see anyone hiding in a corner anymore like I used to when there were 7 fish. All fish are active, healthy looking and unhurt. I cannot speak about the effects of the stress from all the aggressiveness, but seeing as how they all attempt to court often, I would say they seem to be fine.

So, I would say, a single pair can spell disaster, while too many males in a small space can also lead to deaths. Too many fish in a small space will also lead to deaths, but I seem to have found a golden ratio of 3 females to 1 male in a planted 20 gallon long tank.