Lightning maroon being bullied

[LanM]

Hi guys,
I have a scenario where I had a davinci and a lightning maroon, both small juveniles. The davinci died, and was replaced by another.

It was a bit patchy at first, but they were getting along for the better part of the past week. The new davinci is slightly larger. The lightning hosts the bta, I think the davinci wants in.

Yesterday they were scuffling a bit, and today I thought all was well until a half hour ago I checked the tank and the lightning is hiding out back, and the davinci hits him hard if he leaves the back.

Problem (aside from the obvious) is the orchid dottyback doesnt appreciate him there either. His fins are getting tattered. I placed a scubber wand at an angle next to his rock, which is keeping the davinci at bay for now.

Should I remove one of the 2 and isolate them, and if so which one, the aggressor or the victim?

 

[Tahoe61]

If you replaced with juvenile female and already have a transitioning female your going to have issues. I would put the aggressor in an acclimation box for couple days, release and see if the tension eases up. When you re-release the aggressor try to change up the scape just a little and leave the lights off initially.

 

[LanM]

If you replaced with juvenile female and already have a transitioning female your going to have issues. I would put the aggressor in an acclimation box for couple days, release and see if the tension eases up. When you re-release the aggressor try to change up the scape just a little and leave the lights off initially.

Thanks for the reply. I'm not certain that the lightning was the alpha of the last pair, they were very freindly and both had shown sporadic submissive behavior to the other. The only time I saw aggression on the lightning's side was after it hosted the anenome but the DaVinci died two days later by getting his head stuck between the wall of the aquarium and the heater which was my mistake after cleaning I must have angled it a little too close to the glass and I'm still regretting that.

In this pair (using the term loosely), the lightning and the dottyback were aggressive towards the new DaVinci for the first couple of days until the new DaVinci realized it was the bigger of the two of them.

It's really been very anxious and just beating up the lightning for a couple days. He's whipped he's just kind of staying by himself between the rock with his anemone and the wall. The pipe cleaner that I have on the top of his Rock is doing an excellent job keeping the DaVinci on the other side of the tank for the past hour it won't even come near him.

I have to leave at 4 a.m. due to having to travel two and a half hours one way for a work trip, if I don't have access to an acclimation box since it's 10:30pm, anything I can do to increase the chances that the lightning lives through the day tomorrow. I have two other empty tanks I could throw 10 gallons of salt water in the cube, run out and buy a heater at wally world right now, and pop a powerhead in there until I get back tomorrow.

 

[LanM]

 

[Tahoe61]

When I a jam I cut a plastic liter bottle of soda in half, poke a lot holes in it and cover the fish with it and stick the bottle in the sand so it can not blow away and the fish can not get out. Just an idea that I had to use with my Lightings when I needed an acclimation box asap. It worked eventually to allow the aggressor some time out and the aggression recipients some time to heal and get used to each other.