Seeking advice for reintroducing an injured fish

I have gotten a 55 up and running. I added a group of fish that had been together for about 6 months without any problems amongst them whatsoever. I left them in the 55 for 2 weeks to get acclimated. I then added 6 more to the tank. One of the original fish in that tank got the crap kicked out of him almost immediately (I woke to him lying on the bottom of the tank, beat up pretty badly) so, into the QT he went. After 3 weeks, he was looking much better, back to his 'lively' ways of splshing me with water every time I fed him, so I put him back into the 55, at the same time adding 5 other fish. The next day, he was beat up again, lying on the bottom of the tank (basically a repeat of before).

The little guy has been in the QT tank again for about 2 weeks and is getting better, scarres and all. I have 5 more fish I would like to add to the tank and thought it smart to add fish in 'groups' to spread the aggression against the newly added fish. The issue I have is, the last group I plan to add consists of the largest fish, and I'm sure the current inhabitants of the 55 won't bother the larger fish, but will focus on him once again since he is amongst the smallest in size (he is @ 3 inches - the same size of the ones i added first).

Any suggestions?

This is always a problem. A method that seem to work often is to rearrenge the rocks in the tank before reintroducing fish. Then the others are occupied with establishing new territory for them selves. It´s always a plus to introduce a large group instead just one, because that almost never works. It could also be a good idea to keep the tank dark when doing this.

I had a similar problem with my rusties last year. It took a long time, but I finally got them to coexist even though there is still plenty of chasing. Here's the link to the topic. http://www.riftlakecichlids.com/t697-rusty-aggression

In the past I have found that using the breeder net or clear breeder box for a day or two can sometimes be helpful and then releasing while adding others, during a water change, and/or right after rearranging the decor. I also try to have floating fake plants or anything else I can keep near the top for the stressed fish to hide in. (They usually go to the top corners when being bullied.) With my rusties I added just about everything I could find and slowly removed it as the bullied fish stopped drawing so much attention.

Thanks for the advice I will try everything all at once to see how it works out. I have plenty of floating items to put inthe tank (leftovers from years of community tanks) to go with the caves/tunnels at the top of the tank from my 'custom styrofoam' background (I made hiding places at the top of the water level on purpose, I guess he couldn't find them in time...). I'm going to put him back in next weekend, as well as the last 6 to go in that tank, after my scheduled tank cleaning and hope for the best...

If he doesnt do well this time, I guess I have to start a new tank, and he will be boss by default!

well...

I have just done a tank cleaning, totally rearranged the tank, and added new cichlid stones. I also have added a BUNCH of floating plants, at the same time introducing the new fish. The lights are all off in the tank, and everyone got fed prior to all of this... The current inhabitants are chasing the MUCH larger Crabro (which I do not think is very smart...) and the recovered guy (who was the start of this thread) seems to be doing fine so far. He found the water level cave that he can defend easily...

I will keep you posted on events as they occur...

TONS of aggression! even the fish that got along are joining in... I recovered the tank in hopes of toning it down a bit, but all are still alive and 'swimming'...

My Saulosi is going after EVERYONE!!!

At least it isn't just one being picked on, but I hope they all settle down soon. They have to reestablish who's boss and new territories with the changes and additions. My fingers are crossed!

I took the cover off the tank (very briefly) to see how everyone is doing... They are all there, although there is a battle royal going on... I htink they know who the sub-dominant ones are because there are 5 fish hanging out at the top of the tank in the plants... the fight is down to a Saulosi, 2 Blue Zebra, a Johanni, and a Venustus for who is boss... The 2 big Crabro wussed out of the fight...

They are all showing colors that I haven't seen before. The Saulosi is almost dark black, and one of the Zebra is too... both female Auratus are flaunting male coloring too...

I hope they get this dispute settled quickly because I would hate to lose any of them

jmcfive wrote:TONS of aggression! even the fish that got along are joining in... I recovered the tank in hopes of toning it down a bit, but all are still alive and 'swimming'...

My Saulosi is going after EVERYONE!!!

You´re not the first one to have problems with aggression when it comes to saulosi. They can be real demons. How big is the saulosi group?

I have 2 Saulosi, one is the boss, the other is/was fairly docile until I added this last grouping of 2 crabro, a Venustus, and the other one that was getting battered prety bad (I'm embarassed to say that I do not know what he is - he's an albino somethng or other)...

The previous fish that was getting battered got beat up pretty bad again. I took him out, and everyone seems to have settled down a bit. Maybe he was talking trash to the others and they just got tired of listening to it