How to deal with bullying?

[Zante]

I have two falcula butterflies. They have been together in the shop tank for three weeks, they have been in my tank for a week, and in that period there was no aggression or bullying.

Now one of the two is forcing the other in a corner of the tank behind the rockwork. It doesn't seem to be all-out aggression, more like bullying.

The aggressor knows very well where the other one is because he chases him right into his corner and then leaves. He occasionally cruises over the other's corner and ignores him.

If he dares to crawl out there isn't an immediate reaction, he will calmly swim over, swim up to the submissive one and hang around for a short while, then he'll start pecking at him and then pursuit ensues until he's back in the corner.

In all of this there is no flaring of fins or gills.

The strange thing is that the bullied one has a bit of lymphocistosis and it's been clearing most quickly in this period of "segregation", but I'm guessing it's just a coincidence.

These are my first butterflies, so I don't know what to think. Is this normal behavior?

If I take out the bully for a couple of weeks will that help?
Should I let them sort it out themselves?

When I first added my pair of coral beauties, I hardly ever saw the female for two or three weeks as the male was pestering her, then they settled and cruised the tank together. Could it be something similar?

BTW, I used "he" and "him" as a default, I have no idea what sex they are. I only have a 50/50 chance they are male and female.

 

[Zante]

I have just fed the tank some frozen mysis, and even if tentative the bullied one came out to have his share. The bullying one simply ignored him.

Once the food was finished he crept back to his hiding place. There was no aggression whatsoever.

Also I'd like to add that the bullied one has no injuries, no torn or bitten fins or any other sign.

 

[SDguy]

Pairing butterflies can be very difficult. I've tried a few times and it never worked out. Best way to do it is to get several small ones, let them sort it out, and remove all but the pair.

Long term I don't think your situation will work. Not sure how big your tank is, but falcula butterflies get pretty big. I would remove one.

 

[enjetek]

It's not good when any fish hides in the corner of a tank due to another. Get one of them out and problem solved. If you really want to continue to have them both get the bully out for a while and hope the bullied fish settles in before adding the bully back in. If it still doesn't work, go back to the original plan of only having one.

 

[Zante]

Pairing butterflies can be very difficult. I've tried a few times and it never worked out. Best way to do it is to get several small ones, let them sort it out, and remove all but the pair.

I wasn't looking for a pair, just for two which would coexist. If they did turn out to pair up it would have been a very welcome bonus.

Long term I don't think your situation will work. Not sure how big your tank is, but falcula butterflies get pretty big. I would remove one.

The tank is 5x2x2.

It's not good when any fish hides in the corner of a tank due to another. Get one of them out and problem solved. If you really want to continue to have them both get the bully out for a while and hope the bullied fish settles in before adding the bully back in. If it still doesn't work, go back to the original plan of only having one.

Yeah, that was plan A to solve the issue, I'm going to set up the isolation tank this afternoon. I was posting mainly to pick the brain of more experienced people than I am.

The shop has already said they will take one back for the full cost of it.

 

[SDguy]

Generally speaking, majority of Chaetodon species butterflies will not tolerate each other in the same tank unless they are a pair.

 

[Zante]

I'm ready to take him back, I'm already planning alternative stocking, I just want to give them a chance.

 

[ncjetskier]

On my 75 gal tank, it gets to the point that once it is established with long term fish (clowns, angle, tang, and damsel) I cannot add ANYTHING without them picking on it. So, when I get bored with my fish, I catch them all and bring them to the LFS. They give me 50% of retail in store credit. Then, I add all the new fish at once so nobody is a long term residence.

I found that you can re-arrange the tank all you want with the fish out and they will still figure out it is their home (probably due to looking out the tank and seeing the same room surroundings). Nothing seems to work except get rid of them.

 

[Zante]

Something has happened and I don't know how to interpret it.

The submissive butterfly now has a wound on the flank, but all aggression seems to have terminated. They are both out and about and swimming in the open, spending a lot of time close together.

The submissive one is obviously in pain, and the wound seems to be quite bad, but it looks as if the fish was slammed against the rocks by the currents rather than attacked by the other butterfly.

The dominant one gives the impression of being concerned about the submissive one. I am aware that is just humanising the fish, I just wanted to describe the impression their behaviour gives me.

I have switched the main pumps off, to help the fish recover from the shock of the wound. Unfortunately at the moment I have nowhere to put him, what was supposed to become the isolation tank for the dominant one is still full of freshwater fish.

 

[Zante]

It looks quite bad.

I managed to get a good look at the wound, and it dosn't seem deep, but it's wide, which is consistent with my hypothesis of the fish being slammed against the rocks.

I'm not sure if it's just the shock of if the wound is really serious, but it was having trouble swimming, it got progressively worse and now it's lying on its side.

A shrimp just came over to investigate and it leapt up moved a bit further up and now it's on it's side again.

I am seriously afraid it won't make it through the night. I hope keeping the main pumps off will give it a chance to recover.

 

[jjk_reef00]

I've never been able to keeps groups of any butterfly fish (I've only tried 3 species), they all would not tollerate eachother long term. Despite what I read online I've found falcula's to be rather sensitive and I wouldn't expect one to last more than a couple of weeks if it was being forced into a corner. I did have a friend who kept 3 raccoons together for over a year with no problems so maybe they are worth a try if you want groups of butterfly fish.

 

[Zante]

I would have much rather rehomed it, not the best way to end this issue, but it's an end at least.

I wasn't looking for a group necessarily, I ordered a falcula and they got two. Since they got on so well together for the quarantine period in the and the training period in the shop, I thought I'd give keeping them together a try.