Super aggressive female enisae

**Mudskipper** · 22nd Jun 2011, 05:07

I am totally baffled. I tried to comm my female enisae yesterday and put her in my 3ft tank with a pair of bellica, female ocellata and large male enisae (she is 1/3 his size)...and 4 sterbai cories and 2 albino plecos. She's the smallest yet she beats everyone up to the point I had to take her out and put her into her 1ft tank again. She even attacked the cories and plecos. What's up with that? Why is she so aggressive? Is this normal?

**johannes** · 22nd Jun 2011, 13:29

maybe she is a little uptight

**Mudskipper** · 22nd Jun 2011, 14:04

Bro, she is not just a little uptight...she is BIG TIME uptight. All wound up for no good reason. So frustrating. How to breed her if she is so ... emmm ... butch?

**stormhawk** · 22nd Jun 2011, 14:30

Separate her? Perhaps you might have a subdominant male on your hands. Even with the usual splendens, some females are exceptionally aggressive, so no surprise you got an extra aggressive female enisae on your hands. Alternatively, house her in a clear breeding trap within the same tank. Let her know she's not "alone". I guess being separated from other fish for so long, perhaps she got extra aggressive during her "confinement" period in the 1ft tank.

**Mudskipper** · 22nd Jun 2011, 14:48

Makes sense. She wasn't so aggressive when i first got her. I will try that...I can't believe she was beating up fishes three times her size. Thanks for the help. 8-)

**900801** · 22nd Jun 2011, 20:13

What I've notice for the few wild betta species that i've owned, is that the females are more aggressive when they are younger. As they aged/mature for breeding the male becomes more aggressive. Usually I dont really bother just provide lots of hiding space.

**Mudskipper** · 23rd Jun 2011, 02:30

This one is super agressive. Hope the ones I'm getting soon aren't so ... hehe. Anyways, here's a photo of the tank...I can't think of more spaces to hide.

**Emokidz** · 23rd Jun 2011, 03:40

Wow, there's so much vegetation in your tank (compared to mine, anyway) it's really a wonder why the female is so agressive. Even with minimal planting, some of my more agressive channoide females become more docile once they can't really see the others.

**Mudskipper** · 23rd Jun 2011, 09:22

Same with my channoides here. Just dump a few leaves and old ketapang leaves and they calm down. This enisae didn't just attack those in the open, she sought out everything in the tank and even beat up my cories and plecos. Guess I will let her grow a bit more before trying to comm her again...I put her with the male she came with and she beat him up so badly. Poor thing. Thank goodness fins heal very quickly.

**900801** · 23rd Jun 2011, 10:07

Wow more vegetated then mine. I only have a single java fern block. Usually im not too bothered if they get aggressive. I'll add ktp leaves unless they get really aggressive then i'll put them in a breeder trap inside the same tank.

**Mudskipper** · 23rd Jun 2011, 11:52

I like the breeder trap idea...going to go look for some at C328 when I get back from KL next week. May try to see if i can find them for cheap cheap in KL...LOL!