what to do about sneaker male who is no longer sneaking.

[martink]

So i bought 4 abacaxis 1 male 3 females. one has turned into another male. There is a pair which is fine and a submissive female. So far the small male has to submit but the chasing isnt terrible and he is not afraid or cowering; he explores and seems quite confident. but I gather this may not last as they are still juvenile and the larger male shows some signs of being aggressive, during feeding etc, but does not hound the others just asserts himself. My question is do i just monitor then remove or is it best to remove now and give the small male a good chance to grow into his own. My tank is 100 by 40 cm full of large cherry tree leaf substrate and many breaks in perspective. ill add photo. my camera has no depth perception at all, it just flattens everything.View attachment fishtank.jpg

 

[Apistoguy52]

Personally, I’d just continue to watch. The last time I had abacaxis I kept groups of 5m/2f, and it went quite a bit better than the first time I kept abacaxis….

 

[anewbie]

When i research the species (have not kept); they were one of the species i considered keeping a 'colony' in a large aquarium (48x30 inch); while your aquarium is smaller it is still rather large - around the size of a 40B which if well scaped should provide quite a bit of room.

 

[martink]

Personally, I’d just continue to watch. The last time I had abacaxis I kept groups of 5m/2f, and it went quite a bit better than the first time I kept abacaxis….

im intrigued what happened the first time. I will just monitor. i have 4 nannostromus eques and 3 beckfordi in there too, should have mentioned that.

 

[martink]

When i research the species (have not kept); they were one of the species i considered keeping a 'colony' in a large aquarium (48x30 inch); while your aquarium is smaller it is still rather large - around the size of a 40B which if well scaped should provide quite a bit of room.

yeah problem is that he knows they are there, so if he wants to, he can just go find them, which happens every feeding. ive seen him look under the leaves like a police detective haha.

 

[Apistoguy52]

im intrigued what happened the first time. I will just monitor. i have 4 nannostromus eques and 3 beckfordi in there too, should have mentioned that.

First time around I had only a trio. Between the aggression from the male, and the bickering amongst the girls, I could never get them past wigglers.

Second time around was a bit of a mess ( multiple populations of sp. abacaxis, and some pulchra mixed in, hence the multiple males per female ( let them sort it out)). It was infinitely better. Males were occupied enough with protecting territory, that the females were left relatively unmolested (which resulted in boatloads of babies)

 

[anewbie]

First time around I had only a trio. Between the aggression from the male, and the bickering amongst the girls, I could never get them past wigglers.

Second time around was a bit of a mess ( multiple populations of sp. abacaxis, and some pulchra mixed in, hence the multiple males per female ( let them sort it out)). It was infinitely better. Males were occupied enough with protecting territory, that the females were left relatively unmolested (which resulted in boatloads of babies)

i wonder if he needs to add another male and a female or two. I.e, with just two males things might become one on one but iwth 3 or more males they might establish their own locations (take this as a question and not a suggestion) ?