Aggressive Jades

[Burnbrae]

I've placed a number of jade perch in different internal tanks as both decorative and conversation pieces. However in both tanks I have observed the largest Jade have recently become very aggressive to other jades in the tanks, they do not bother the other fish species. This agressive behaviour is not repeated to the jade perch I have stocked my aquapondic's tank.

[fishfood]

Yes my jades in the aquariam theres one large one always chasing the others

[Burnbrae]

Jade in question has started to attack the silver perch so I have been forced to the relocate this particular jade to the ap tank. I hope the remaining jades will behave and not attack each other or the silvers.

[wannabee]

Yes my jades in the aquariam theres one large one always chasing the others

Is it big enough to eat yet?

[Burnbrae]

G'day Wannabe

I wish he was, but probably only about half size.

[Burnbrae]

The basic observation was the largest jade became aggressive towards the other jades and silver perch in aquarium.

As I progressively removed the offending jade the next largest jade assumed the role. After repeating this process on 4 seperate occassions I just bit the bullet and remove all jades from the aquarium except 1.

Unfortunately this proved to be a waste of time as this single remaining jade continued to repeat the behaviour of its big brothers. The attacks now included the empire gudegons.

All jade perch previously removed have been relocated into the AP tank, no further aggression or wounds have been observed on the fish stock.

The question is , why is the aggression only exhibited in the aquarium,and not in the AP tank. Secondly the bulk of the attacks was directed to the silver perch

[GaryD]

Hi Burnbrae,

The question is , why is the aggression only exhibited in the aquarium,and not in the AP tank. Secondly the bulk of the attacks was directed to the silver perch

I don't know for sure but here's some thoughts:

• The aquarium is the most artificial of environments and is the most likely to provoke extreme behaviours. The behaviour may be normal but in an aquarium there's no place to run as there would be in a larger tank.
• In nature, the strong prevail over the less strong - it's nature's way of ensuring that the species stays viable.

Jade perch usually get along well with other fish (as much as one species is going to get along with another) so I'm guessing that the nastiness toward the other fish is territorial in nature.

Gary

[Burnbrae]

Thanks for your thoughts.

I have tried to identify the differences between the aquarium and the AP tank, and observe.

Water capacity - same
Tank dimensions - aquarium rectanglaur inlieu of square
Water test results - same
Water temperature - same
Lighting - artifical lighting in lieu of natural
Diet - same
Filtration - external filter cannister on aquarium, maintained regularly
Species - the aquarium contains many other native species of various sizes
Enviroment - aquarium includes currents, logs, rocks, gravel, plants