African Tiger Fish Aggression

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DayumDanny

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Jun 12, 2012
288
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31
Connecticut
I have been pretty successful for the past few months keeping a group of African tiger fish together. Recently though one of my tigers attitude is starting to get real nasty.

I am keeping these guys in a 125 gallon, with over 6000 gph of current. They are all pellet trained and fed very well. The tigers are all around the 7" mark. In my group i have 3 goliath, 2 tanzaniae, and 1 Vittatus. For dithers i have 3 Tin foil barbs, 3 silver dollars, 1 cigar shark, and a pink tail chalceus. The vittatus is the one that is causing all the trouble. I have tried separating the vittatus into a seperate take for 1-2 weeks. I don't want to separate it for too long because it doesn't want to eat when in a different tank.

I've notice that if one tiger is away from the group of fish, it is usually the one that is going to get targeted. I am thinking about getting even more dithers to put in the tank. Possibly 5-6 pink tailed chalceus to cover the top of the tank, trio of albino barbs, trio of lemon fin barbs, 2 more cigar sharks, 3 spotted silver dollars, 3 large bala sharks.

Other than that I am not sure what else to do. I am open to all ideas.
 
I've noticed that the mesopredator species (VATF and FATF) seem to be highly antagonistic toward the apex predator species (GATF, BATF, TATF). I suspect this is a reactionary instinct to the fact that the mesopredators are prey for the apex predators and will harass them at any available opportunity. For better known examples of this type of behavior, look at crows mobbing a hawk, jays mobbing a cat or even more dramatically, buffalo killing lions.

My own experiences with the mesopredator species corroborate this. I don't have enough evidence to prove it yet, though it does make sense.
 
I was about to say something along the same lines, not nearly as deatiled though haha just that maybe it knows its lunch at some point for the bigger guys so its trying to thin them out. If the vatf outgrows the others in time it will probably be the "buffalo killing lions" situations chic described, other way around could happen if the bigger guys outgrow the vatf. Id keep a close eye on sizes, maybe replace the bigger vatf with a smaller one if it keeps up

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Think of it this way- VATF and FATF are like coyotes. They're fine predators in their own right and not something you'd want to grab with your bare hands. The problem is that GATF, TATF and BATF are wolves. If there are no wolves, the coyote will even act like a wolf (see they 'coywolves' of the US northeast for an example). But at the end of the day, while they might look similar, the wolf is very much the dominant predator. If a coyote finds unguarded wolf cubs, it is likely to kill them.

What we're seeing here is a coyote living with a pack of wolves and taking the actions that it feels are necessary to defend itself.

Due to my recent troubles with VATF and FATF mixing, I'm not likely to try to mix them with BATF, GATF or TATF again, though the three 'wolves' seem to play together fine. I've not had VATF and FATF in the tank at the same time as one another. I wonder how that would work out?
 
First of all keep in mind these are Tigerfish and aggression is their nature. Secondly, a 125 is way too small for a group of 7" ATF. Until you get a 800g or bigger tank the aggression will not stop. Even after some get killed over time you will end up with one remaining......

I have only two left from my group of 5. A 12" GATF and a 9" VATF in a 650g and the smaller one still gets picked on. Although not as bad as before when the alpha was a VATF, the GATF still picks on the smaller one. One of my tin foils currently has a one inch gash that looks like a samuri sword cut it. It's so deep I can almost see bone. If I were to save the fish I'd have to suture it but I'm just glad it wasn't on the ATF.
 
One school of thought is to pack the tank with so many dithers that the species' nature is subdued and/or the odds of the aggressor biting another Tiger is minimized; it sounds like that's what you are leaning towards. IMO, this method of keeping fish is ridiculous.

If you want to keep a community setup, buy community fish. If you want to keep hyper aggressive toothy fish, the best practice is to keep them individually.
 
I can confirm that my 2 taft and 3 gatf together together almost never have any aggression with each other. And everyone has perfect scales and fins. Also I added a fatf to the mix once before, after two weeks the vatf took it out.

I think my best bet is to setup a separate tank for the vatf with separate dithers.

I understand that a 125 gallon maybe to small but with the current and the dithers i already have in the tank, it doesn't seem like its too small. They are not banging their noses against the glass they all have perfect looking snouts. I am trying to go down the path of minimizing the odds as aldiaz33 put it. Your 600 gallon probably made it easier for your atf to zero in on each other. Observing the fish in my tank, if one swims away from the group, it is usually followed by my vatf going after it.
 
Yep....I had a school of 2 forskalli , 2 Tanzania and. My goliath....went perfect for first year then slowly but surely got. Ugly........only goliath left....sold off others
 
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