Crenicichla Thread #1

decided to create thread for pike resources/chats/et.c hope you all don't mind.

like to share some latest developments in my "pike comm"

what i had experienced and heard before was that pikes are very conspecific, territorial, tough as nails, voracious predators, and not so popular in aquaculture. they may be a little less maniacal than some CA Cichlids (like Dovii) however. i had successfully introduced an 10" xingu I into a tank with cichlids and an 11" sp. venezuela but it was NOT easy.
since then i have created a pike comm with about 8 pikes ranging from 8-12" and about 9 cichlids ranging from 4-8". i created a very natural (pipes and rocks) environment for them to create territorries and have a place to retreat. i noticed quickly though that, although the aggression was manageable, there were high levels of stress in the tank. i believe that CA Cichlids can cope with stress (as well as almost any water condition) quite well. the pikes do not fare so well and their immune system rapidly gives way to the onset of disease.
in order to combat this i first removed about half of the cichlids from the tank. this only led to more focalised aggression. what i did next was remove all decor from the tank. i noticed that this swiftly helped remedy the problem. all the fish were calm and schooling and there was minimal tension. i have also noticed that this new environment (along with pima/melafix) has led to immeidate progress in the healing of the disease (HITH and HLLE) which pikes are very susceptible to under both stress and poor water quality.

just thought i would share this because i haven't seen many people shcool
ADULT-SUBADULT pikes at all. since not everyone can afford a megatank to give them a truly natural environment and not everyone is content with 2 or even 1 pike in a tank, this would be useful info. also, IMHO, comming pikes is even more difficult that comming aros (just not as costly )