SEPARATING
                                                                                                         PETROCHROMIS
                                                                                                         FROM THE REST
                                                                                                          OF THE GROUP
                                                                                                Frank Schulterbrandt  10/17/2009

          Due to the aggressive nature of housing petrochromis in the aquarium, there comes a time when you will have to remove the wounded petro from the rest of the group. Once your wounded petro has recovered from it’s injuries you now want to return it to the rest of the group.  Returning the now healed petro back to the group can be a tricky and risky ordeal. The reason for that is once you have removed the wounded petrochromis from the rest of the group it has now become an outcast to the group. Many petrochromis hobbyist face this ordeal and many end up having the same results if returned to the group, “Death To The Outcast”.

         A possible solution to this is to use egg crating from Home Depot, Lowes, your local hardware store, or a lighting store. You will be constructing a cage that can go in the tank not too large so it does not take away the beauty of your tank but large enough to keep your petro contained. This cage will be suspended from the frame of the tank or some other type of support. The egg crating allows water from the tank
to flow freely through your newly constructed hospital tank. Be sure to make a top for the cage as well. You can use plastic ties to join the
sides, bottom and top. Don’t be cheap with the plastic ties as these petros can be rough on the egg crating. 

        Another reason for removing petrochromis from the group is a female that is holding young and you want to strip the young from her. Any
time you remove a fish from the tank you should not keep her out of the tank and away from the group form more than 30 minutes to 90 minutes.
If you keep the female out of the tank away from the group, your risk her being rejected by the group and thereby becoming and outcast. Once she becomes and outcast ,death will follow in most cases.  So make quick work on anything you have to do with keeping petros away from the group
so that they are returned to the group in a prompt manner.  

     Another reason for removing petrochromis is possibly taking the petro out and putting it in a photo tank setup. The same rules apply as if it were a female that is going to be striped of her young. 

   
    Hobbyist have tried all kinds of routines to try and return the now healed petro back to the rest of the group. Re-arranging the landscape, then returning the petro back to the group with the lights out ,  moving the whole group to a new tank ,etc.

    I ask this question, (when adding new fish in the tank they usually don’t have too much of a problem. They may in fact challenge the current alpha male of the tank for his throne)  so what is the real difference when returning the newly healed petro back to the tank versus the addition of new petros to the tank ? 

    Two out of five times I have had success releasing the now healed petro back to the community without any retaliation from the group.  
The other two times presented more problems and the newly healed petro had to be put into a separation tank as there was a constant barrage  of attacks. The one remaining time the newly healed petro was released in the tank and for 3 days no problems on the fourth I had to take that petro
out of the main tank again.

    The forty  percent (2 out of 5 times) petrochromis (wounded return to the rest of the group) acceptance rate , is not acceptable.
Perhaps I will use a combination of landscaping, water change  and  the egg crate recovery cage on my next attempt. The final attempt would be
 just removing all of the landscaping (rocks, caves, plants) then do a nice water change and return all of the petros including the newly healed.

     If non of the above ideas work, consider starting a new colony with the outcasts and possibly F1s. The other solution is to put these loners in other petro tanks until you can start a new colony.  

    When you attempt to try to re-introduce the newly healed petrochromis back to the group… keep a close eye on that tank.
Good luck and let us know how you resolved the problem because there is always a new way of doing things.

Enjoy

  

       After more experiments with re-introducing the wounded petro back to the group… the most effective way is to totally remove the
petro and keep him/her separated for more than 8 weeks if possible. After the separation period is over place the petro back in the tank with the group. Again you must keep a close watch for any aggression problems…..

 

Once again good luck and enjoy.

Related Articles :

The Psychology Of  Petrochromis
Petrochromis DIY Projects