As a Christmas present I promised my son that I'd buy him a fish to put in one of my tanks. He chose a sumo loach. I figured that it would go OK in my 60G because there are rocks, plants, wood, plenty of places to stake out his own territory. So the little bastard comes home and goes into QT. He was somewhat shy as expected... until feeding time. He would erupt out of his hiding place and streak around the tank, nipping the hell out of the 2 mollies and one platy that live in that tank every time he swam past. I figured that he wasn't really satan's spawn, just stressed by living in a 10G.
After a couple weeks I moved him over to the 60G where I keep 6 assorted rainbows, 3 apistos, 2 corys, one pleco, and a super-friendly electric blue jack dempsey. He immediately disappears behind the biggest rock in the tank and I think that all is well... until feeding time. Same story. The little turd streaks around the tank nipping the rainbows from behind. He doesn't mess with the jack dempsey too much and he completely leaves the apistos alone. It seems that the faster the fish move, the more he's interested in nipping their tail. And to make the matter worse, he chooses the highest point of the biggest rock as his territory. (Right in the center of the tank.)
At this point about a week later, the rainbows are a bit less colorful so I suspect that they are stressed. The apistos are showing spawning behavior again so I think they're OK. The jack dempsey seems fine, although he defensively turns nose-to-nose every time the sumo swims near.
So the questions:
1. Any advice would be welcomed.
2. Is this normal behavior for a sumo loach?
3. Is this situation likely to improve as the sumo gets to know his surroundings better?
4. Is it likely that the bastardy sumo will turn my friendly electric blue jack dempsey from completely docile to aggressive? (He's young-ish, 2.5-3 inches.)
Thanks!
Home 
