evil firemouth?

[amishfignewton]

so I got a bunch of firemouths and am waiting for them to pair up. I have noticed that this one firemouth keeps "beating the crap" out of another firemouth. He only chases/attacks this one firemouth and leaves the others alone. Also the one doing hte attacking from what I can tell is a male and I believe that the victim is a female. Is this kind of like when the little boy punches the little girl in the arm that he has a crush on? :-?

 

[Managuense]

hello. there are always hyper-dominant males in cichlid species that are normally realtively peaceful, such as meeki. if you are able to trade this male for another fish, i probably would to avoid this kind of aggression-or move him to another tank.

are they all about the same size? or is the male a lot larger than the others? usually what happens is a male starts to "sex-out" and becomes interested in breeding, and if a female is either "not ready" (not old enough) or just not interested, the male will bully her relentlessly. HTH
M

 

[dana307]

Firemouths are big bullys and I am going to return my last one I think.

 

[Managuense]

i dont think that the firemouths are so much "bullies" as they are the ONLY cichlids in your 50 gallon.

compared to other cichlids they are actually pretty docile, and are usually the ones getting "bullied"

for your tank, you may try some rams, kribs, checkerboards, curviceps--all of which would better suit your other fish than the firemouths
M