aplha male frontosa help................?

[illusionz_NZ]

I would like to know why people choose to get rid of there alpha male fronts.

Why not keep the main dominant male and get rid of the other males bar one so it leaves the dominant one and the next dominant one below it?

I am discovering confrontation in my frontosa tank as they are breeding now and showing signs of aggression with the main male and the smallest male. I have 3 males in total and rest are girls. ( i have noticed lately a wee bit of fighting amongst the girls too)

I believe it may be time to remove one of the males but want to find out first as I have often seen single alpha male fronts advertised for sale.

CHEERS

[ryanjury]

I can't speak from experience, but I know someone (who posted on here ages ago) and he kept getting rid of his sub dominant males as they got picked on, the alpha just turned on the females when he ran out of males so he ended up selling his alpha male and females separately and cutting his losses.

Personally if your second 2 males are descent enough to breed from I would rehome the dominant one, if the aggression is fairly minor then I would just leave them to it, sometimes screwing with these colonies can cause all hell to break loose

How big is the tank they are in?

[livingart]

i have 2 males and 3 females in a 2.4m tank been together for 24mths +

alpha male pushes/shadows submale to cave at other end of tank then goes back to his end and thats about it for agression

i maybe lucky but the group has always been together

[ryanjury]

I imagine the 8ft tank would help in your situation Mark It is always a hard road with colony forming fish some people have great luck with a pair and some have terrible luck with 12.. It always depends on the fish But if things aren't too bad and the fish are breeding i wouldn't mess with it..

[smidey]

so when you get rid of the alpha male the "b" males remain "b" & don't step up to become alpha?

i have not had frontosas but every alpha male i have passed on has been quickly replaced by the next in line.

[Freakyfish]

It will depend on the quality too on which one I would remove

When the A fish is removed the B will become the A straight away

Brad

[ryanjury]

I think someone said that the first one to mature is the best to remove if they are exceptionally aggressive.. If they are all getting along I wouldn't mess with it, sometimes we go through our tanks removing the fish that get picked on and then the bully turns on the next fish, it is sometimes better to remove the bully and allow another to mature if your having problems?

[Aquatopia]

Just a thought, and I know very little about fronts at the moment, but what if you were to take out the male getting bullied, along with a couple of girls, and set him up with his own little group ?

Have to say though, as Ryan said, if they are breeding (hehe) then the maxim "if it aint broke dont fix it" may apply.

Doesnt answer the original question about why do people remove their alpha males though - i suspect there is a variety of reasons - some of the descriptions on TMe of fish being "alpha males" may not necessarily be all that accurate anyway - :lol: