how to fix a Mad divorce?

[sidguppy]

big problem
running out of scenario's

it's this: I bought a genuine pair of Paratilapia polleni (or small spot Andaba) a while ago.
both male and female about 5-6" long.
in the LFS tank they'd already paired off the first time I've seen em. they kep the other polleni's from their corner and stuck very close to each other.
they kept at it the second time and I bought them the third time I visited Thomas tilmann's Aquazoo shop.

they showed the same behaviour in my tank. dug out pits, made several spawning attempts and finally spawned

unfortunately the catfishes ate the eggs. not a real problem I thought, because I hadn''t planned onm raising the fry.

but now things changed and the pairbond broke.....
they're the same size wich probably is why the female's still alive.
but the male kept on trying to kill her and after a week or two I was fed up by the sight of the poor female, so I separated them.
after the female was all healed up I reintroduced them to each other again, but after just 1 day he reverted to his obnoxious wifebeating behaviour.

the tank is 1200 liters (315USgallons), there are plenty caves, it's almost 8 foot long, 2.3m.

any idea how I can "fix" this?
is adding a few more polleni's to act as distractions aka punchballs a good idea or so?
it's really sad for the female, especially since they were a very good pair at first.

I'm stumped....

[Michael.NEGRINI]

Hi Alex,

your Paratilapia are not P. polleni, nor P. sp. Andapa, they are more likely Paratilapia sp. East Coast ("small points").

Aggresiveness of male Paratilapia can be problematic, when females are smaller, it's easier to help them with PVC tubes to hide.
Sometimes I also use a big platic bottle (5L) to make a prison for the aggressive fish. In this case the fishes can see each other and interact without damages.
The last solution is to keep them in separate tanks for some months.

Hope this helps

[Dan Woodland]

Do you have other fish in the tank in addition to the catfish? I'm a big proponent of dither fish of just about any kind.

[sidguppy]

sure, the Paratilapia's are by no means the only fish
I got a topic on the whole tank here:
viewtopic.php?f=9&t=4490

the inhabitants are:
11 Paretroplus maculatus
2 Ptychochromis grandidieri. these are spawning every few weeks now
2 Paratilapia spp "East Coast " (tnx Michael!)
5 Synodontis granulosus
3 Phyllonemus typus.

tank is 315G/1200L
decorations: huge rocks and rootwork, caves and swim-throughs.

both are back in the main tank now.
although the male still doesn't like his female, she finally got the hint that hiding in one of the caves is a LOT better than trying to hide in the upper corner of the tank where she got attacked again and again.

she's feeding again, and getting quite fat. after feeding the male chases her and she hides again.
so there's still agression, but it's not a total demolition derby anymore

the main problem here (but maybe benificial too) is that they're exactly the same size!
so caves where the female can fit in are also accessible for the male.....any PVC tubes for her would be a "chase through" for him.
onb the other hand, his "relative small" size perhaps keeps him from destroying her?

keeping fingers crossed