Bristlenose Young (about 2 inchs) fighting

I have 4 baby BNs which have been with me since they were 2cm long. They are growing quick...except one but he / she seems fine otherwise.

However the largest two of the four - which is one brown and one albino keep fighting. They are arching their backs and flaring and looks like trying to stab the other one.

I am upgrading to a 240L tank soon...but just wondered whether this was normal behaviour and also if i need to worry about the one that isnt growing at the same rate?

thanks

Yeah, they do that once in a while. So long as they're not actually smacking each other and trying to kill each other, it's fine.

As for the one growing slowly, well that might be a worry. But I am not so sure about that.

when you say smacking...what do you mean?

Nothing to worry about. It is usual among young adults to fight for dominancy.
This is the way to settle territorial borders and - of course - impress the females.

It was the same with my common BNs (2M/2F in a 84 litre tank), and once territories had been "agreed upon" the water is quiet.

I agree with the above posts in that it sounds like young males doing what young males do

When you get your larger tank if you put caves at both ends of the tank then two males should be able to have a territory without to many disputes.

Bn's will often grow at different rates, the more dominant can often bully others off food, putting food in a few locations can help the less dominant, females can often grow slower than males or it could be just a weeekling.

Once you have your new tank and it has more space to itself then it should pick up

jim.and wrote:

When you get your larger tank if you put caves at both ends of the tank then two males should be able to have a territory without to many disputes.

Unless they both want the same Cave

indeed, i like to put in several caves then let the males pick on then remove the extras

Doug,

does this mean that a male should only have one cave each, as i have quite a few and was wondering if i took some out would this get the male to breed quicker as less to choose from, cos i have several tubes some are about 4cm wide but only one which is about 3cm wide and looks like he has picked this one and fanning like crazy.

yeah, one cave is the best. otherwise the males will cave hope around too much and this distracts from breeding.

I have 3 caves in with my trio. Whenever the male releases his fry and starts to wander around his tank, he always goes back to his favourite cave. Don't think iv ever seen him in another cave since he picked a favourite.