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How do I calm down a bully?


Jerad81

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I have 2 pajama cardinals that have been in my tank for almost a year now. I actually started with 3 but the smallest one got picked on so much by the other 2 he died within a couple weeks. I did some research and learned this is normal behavior for these fish, at least in part. One of them always becomes the "master" of the group so there's always some conflict until the hierarchy is established.

Now, about a year later,  the larger of the two is still bullying the other and I'm getting a little worried it'll kill off it's partner like they did to the third one when they were still new to my tank. I posted two pictures below, one is the bully who looks perfectly happy and healthy and the other is the one being bullied so you can see the difference in their fins, especially the tail fin. Is there anything I can do to make this behavior stop or am I basically stuck watching and hoping the victim will learn to stand up for itself?

 

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I'm not sure if this will work with pajama cardinals but you can try the mirror trick. Stick a mirror against the side of the tank where the larger fish likes to hang around. 

He will busy himself harrassing his reflection rather than the smaller pajama cardinals.

 

I also have two PJ cardinals, one much larger than the other. The larger one gives a little chase but stops short of any contact. Both fish are kept in line with Richard "The Dick" Princess Damselfish. The mirror trick works on Richard really well.

 

If not you may need to look into re-homing the larger PJ.

 

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23 minutes ago, DevilDuck said:

I'm not sure if this will work with pajama cardinals but you can try the mirror trick. Stick a mirror against the side of the tank where the larger fish likes to hang around. 

He will busy himself harrassing his reflection rather than the smaller pajama cardinals.

 

I also have two PJ cardinals, one much larger than the other. The larger one gives a little chase but stops short of any contact. Both fish are kept in line with Richard "The Dick" Princess Damselfish. The mirror trick works on Richard really well.

 

If not you may need to look into re-homing the larger PJ.

 

PXL_20211005_204041006_MP.thumb.jpg.080bb374c81d05e64471e34a429c52b3.jpg

Thanks for the advice! I never thought about trying a mirror but I'll give it a shot. I'm not sure if it will work since I only have a 20g tank and they both like to float around the entire display instead of just one small area but it's definitely worth a try.

I don't have another tank to rehome one of them into unfortunately. I'm probably going to offer one to my lfs if the mirror doesn't work. It's kind of a bummer because I like having two of them and they seem to be a perfect fit in a 20g tank. I don't really want to watch another one get killed though, especially now that I know they will do that, so hopefully my lfs will make a trade with one.

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On 10/6/2021 at 1:46 PM, Jerad81 said:

I have 2 pajama cardinals that have been in my tank for almost a year now. I actually started with 3 but the smallest one got picked on so much by the other 2 he died within a couple weeks. I did some research and learned this is normal behavior for these fish, at least in part. One of them always becomes the "master" of the group so there's always some conflict until the hierarchy is established.

Now, about a year later,  the larger of the two is still bullying the other and I'm getting a little worried it'll kill off it's partner like they did to the third one when they were still new to my tank. I posted two pictures below, one is the bully who looks perfectly happy and healthy and the other is the one being bullied so you can see the difference in their fins, especially the tail fin. Is there anything I can do to make this behavior stop or am I basically stuck watching and hoping the victim will learn to stand up for itself?

 

20211006_122326.jpg

20211006_122333.jpg

What size tank is this?  Sounds to me like it could be too small for them.

 

In general you need to re-home aggressive fish.  Letting them "hash it out" is always a bad solution for at least one of the fish....not a good tack as a responsible fish keeper.  👍

Posted too quick....20G is very small for two of these guys.

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9 minutes ago, mcarroll said:

What size tank is this?  Sounds to me like it could be too small for them.

 

In general you need to re-home aggressive fish.  Letting them "hash it out" is always a bad solution for at least one of the fish....not a good tack as a responsible fish keeper.  👍

Posted too quick....20G is very small for two of these guys.

Yeah, I'm learning the hard way that my research before I bought them didn't give me very good info. I offered one to my lfs but they will only take local fish as "donations" and won't even give me store credit for it. I'm going to post it online and see if I can find someone who will take it. 

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Good plan!!  If you trust the LFS with the donation – that they will not kill the fish – that might not be such a bad option if you don't find something better.  Being out a few $$ isn't something you'll remember for long....it's an expensive hobby.  🙂

 

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