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You might ask why I am writing an article like this, but if you have ever kept petrochromis you will soon understand.
What I am addressing in this article is the fact that when we try to re-introduce wounded petros back to its group, there is only disappointments. You might say this is a continuation of a previous written article of mine, you are probably right. When I acquired my first two groups of petrochromis(Longola & Moshi) , I soon learned what petro aggression was. Once the alpha Longola male established himself in my 125 gallon 6 foot tank, the aggression really started to become more serious. This aggression was just not a fight to establish a territory for himself but a fight for control of the entire tank. In most cases the rival males or sub males are targeted first. The aggressive nature of the aquarium housed petrochromis community can often lead to injury or death and it is for this reason separation of the wounded petro is a necessity until the wounded petro is again healthy.
I have tried separating the wounded petro using an egg-crate holding pen that was in the same tank as the rest of the group. When the wounded petros was removed from the holding after eight weeks and released into the tank with the rest of the group, the alpha male went directly for the kill within an hours time. This technique worked a few times but the overall success rate was not satisfactory to me.
I am still experimenting when a separated petro is removed to another tank and can still be seen by the group that he was removed from. Aggression is still evident as at least one of the petros in the group is charging the glass trying to get at the removed petro in the other tank. I will attempt to re-introduce the wounded petro back to the group after the eight weeks period.
So let us try to understand what is going on here with these petros. I can understand why there is aggression in this captive environment, but what makes the alpha male in the group go after a re-introduced healed petro. Is there some kind of visual recognition or some chemical recognition of the once wounded petro, or simply because this was the petro that he went after in the first place for some unidentified reason ?
Now in the case where the petro that was returned with total isolation and out of sight from the rest of the group for eight weeks. The question here is the visual or chemical recognition not detectable by the alpha male and or the group ? In any case this work four out of five times with different petro variants. The one time that this technique did not work was with a Yellow Moshi Mahale female. I did however have success with returning a Yellow Moshi Mahale sub male to the group after a eight week period. Now why did it not work with the female ?
I understand that in nature the strongest/fittest survives , but the sub male was certainly stronger than most of the rest of the group. I also understand That any male is a threat to the alpha male and may be targeted first. And again I have returned a sub male back to the group without any retaliation from the alpha male and or the group.
I would appreciate any feed back on this article because this is the biggest problem when keeping petrochromis, returning the wounded petro back to its original group. These experiments are not conclusive because they were really not done in a controlled environment…. So once again any Feedback would be appreciated….
Just for the record, the successful petros that were returned with out incident were: 1: Ortho Ikola Ikola female 2: Yellow Moshi Mahale male |