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My Big Fat Mean Nasty Lombardoi has taken half of my 55 gallon as his own territory! The other members of the tank stay in this little nook, unable to go over there without getting clobbered. What can I do?

Last edited by smantzer at 25-Dec-2004 11:52

Buy a larger tank.

More rocks to block sight lines might be worth a try.

reagrange all the decorations you have in the tank and let all the fish claim territory again

i think your only real course of action is to get rid of the kenyi. they are really not suited to a 55gallon tank. they require a much larger tank footprint to really do good for the longterm. you can find many fish that resemble them that are more compatible. saulosi, zebras, mbambas etc...

I agree with rearrainging the decorations & rocks, so the fish will start choosing their territory again. I think this is the only solution, apart from getting a larger tank.



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Member of the Malta Aquarist Society - 1970.
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Rearranging decos is really only a temporary fix. Normally once territories are reestablished the problems will begin again. The one exception is if it is claiming a large deco as its territory that is more towards the middle of the tank. As mentioned above best option is to atually block lines of sight. Divide the tank into 1/3 and form some sort of barrier (plants rocks etc) you dont want it to totally block it off ... but you should see where your fish spends most of its time and put the barrier in that line of sight.

Also as alot of malawi like caves it could be that there simply arent enough choices. Again here is where adding a barrier can help. You can use texas holey rock as the barrier ... thus adding more caves ... or make the barrier out of slate, creating nooks, crannies and caves.

The barrier is the only method i have used that makes it so i dont have to rearrange the tank once a month.

Bdadawg

rearranging the rocks is only going to tempaorarily ease a problem that wont go away without drastic action. i have tried to keep kenyi in a 55g and it wont work for the long haul. my friend had a single female kenyi in his 55g because she killed everybody else. i didnt let mine get to that point, so i just got rid of them. no big deal. i found something i liked better anyway.