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Breeding Agressive Male Help

978 views 10 replies 7 participants last post by  indjo 
#1 ·
Once and a while I come across a aggressive male in a spawn that looks like it could be a good candidate until it severely wounds or kills a female. Normally I can avoided this by breeding a brother in the same spawn but now I am stuck I ended up with one male from my last multi spawn and he happens to be a slight psychopath. I have tried breeding him like the rest of my males in a 5 gal container shoved full of java moss and oak leaves. Males are conditioned in 1/2 gal containers on frozen bloodworms, pellets and live black worms for 1-2 weeks. Females are always in condition in the tank but moved to a secluded half gal for 3 days before spawning. Here is the male that is causing this post... he is 5 months old not much to look at but I promise he has good genes hiding in him :p. I have tried spawning to his sister and 2 other females (thinking maybe he didnt want to spawn to that girl) but he will beat up all of them until I remove them. He is a massive bubble nest builder they stick out of the water and inch. He recently attempted to spawn and he got one embrace then chased her off violently. Am I doomed to never breed him? Is it his age or should I try a larger container?
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#5 · (Edited)
Lol I dont own very many mean females they all live in sororities and I tried one that was kinda mean and it ended up being the one that actually made it to an embrace but now he is just being over aggressive when they get near the nest. I tried putting her back in and he was displaying but as soon as I released her he started attacking again. The few eggs he got out of the one embrace look like they have spoiled...
It is normal for them to chase females off whether the nest isnt ready or they arent ready to spawn.

I guess I will wait till he gets over the nest he is at now to make sure that the eggs really are dead and set him up again in a bigger tank...
And thanks dramaqueen he certainly thinks so :)
 
#7 ·
Once and a while I come across a aggressive male in a spawn that looks like it could be a good candidate until it severely wounds or kills a female. Normally I can avoided this by breeding a brother in the same spawn but now I am stuck I ended up with one male from my last multi spawn and he happens to be a slight psychopath. I have tried breeding him like the rest of my males in a 5 gal container shoved full of java moss and oak leaves. Males are conditioned in 1/2 gal containers on frozen bloodworms, pellets and live black worms for 1-2 weeks. Females are always in condition in the tank but moved to a secluded half gal for 3 days before spawning. Here is the male that is causing this post... he is 5 months old not much to look at but I promise he has good genes hiding in him :p. I have tried spawning to his sister and 2 other females (thinking maybe he didnt want to spawn to that girl) but he will beat up all of them until I remove them. He is a massive bubble nest builder they stick out of the water and inch. He recently attempted to spawn and he got one embrace then chased her off violently. Am I doomed to never breed him? Is it his age or should I try a larger container?
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Aggressive or not, he will spawn. You need to make a longer introduction to the female. Also the idea of a larger tank for spawning like a 10 gal. And put some more places for her to hide. It is natural for him to chase her off, but if she has no where to run, that is when there can be trouble.

Life will find a way to make new life.
Jeff.:)
 
#8 ·
Tire over aggressive males by placing females (decoys) next to or float in the tank. He will calm down after a day or two. But don't be fooled he is still vicious. Then float the actual female in the tank along with the other females. Then take out other females one by one and hope he remains calm. Let him flirt with her (preferably use chimneys or something that allows water to mix so she can sense his hormones). Hopefully she will be willing to spawn before he does any real damage. If you have the time to check up on them every hour or so, wait until she submits - head down style, then release.

You can also use IAL/oak leaves and make the water a bit darker. This should help calm him down and also hide the female better. A bigger tank would also be better. Then all you can do is hope for the best.

I have a killer male - wasn't really that vicious compared to other males, but he only needs 4 -5 bites to kill the female. He attacks from below and bites between the belly and the head area. The above method was the only way I could breed him without killing the female.

Hope this works for you. Good luck.
 
#9 ·
Thanks for all the advice guys. I tried the multiple female method in the larger tank after throwing in more oak leaves. You cant overdue oak leaves right? And I think I got eggs not sure but he is acting like it and I dont want to over disturb him.
indjo- I am glad I dont have males like that sounds like a whole lot of trouble...
 
#11 ·
He killed 3 already, and all were in the tank for less than a day. Plants jammed into one half of the tank didn't help much. He always got to them. It took me almost 2 weeks just to get him to calm down. When I eventually got eggs, he was too tired to care for them.

I hope no one has to experience a killer like him - it's frustrating.

Not sure about breeding (using too many leaves). It will effect the pH, though as long as it's stable, it shouldn't be that big a problem. But it will also form thick film on the water surface which may affect the adults - not sure if this is harmful to the fry. .... I only use them for sick fish.
 
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