Help?

[Fishnoodle]

Hi all,

I consider my self a reasonably experienced fishkeeper. Not amazing but Ive maintained healthy happy fish for a number of years. I have 4 tanks running with various inhabitants living happily together.

I have recently acquired a small (22litre/5gal) tank for a corner table. I have had this tank running quite comfortably for roughly 8 months with the following:
- 2 albino bristlenose (I will be moving these to one of my other larger tanks shortly but for the time being they are only approx 2-4 inches in length)
- 20 neon tetras
- 14 harlequin rasboras
- 1 male Agassiz Dwarf Cichilid

The tank is very well planted with full aquatics and has plenty of logs/caves
I have not had any issues with aggression or bullying.
My water is almost always perfect as I perform religious water changes bi-weekly of 30%

Yesterday, I went to my LFS and purchased the female Agassiz that was previously housed with my male in their display tank prior to my purchasing him 8 months ago.
As I was floating her bag, he was flaring his fins and displaying his colours, and then started literally attacking the bag. I have seen anything like this kind of aggression from him.

I released her into the tank and bagged him immediately, and kept it that way overnight. This morning I released him and they appeared to be co-existing again for the most part, and certainly chasing with less ferocity.

I am considerably worried though. I have a good relationship with my LFS and they have offered a refund if needed but I am concerned that she will even make it through the day. And she will be my first casualty in almost 6 years.

Any thoughts/advice from people in the know? I have some rams in another tank and have not had any problems remotely similar to this.

Help :)

Thanks

[KingFisher]

Regardless of how good your water quality is, the fish need room to roam around and get away from each other when necessary. You need to either move the pair into at least a 20 gallon long tank or separate them into different tanks. A 5 gallon tank is not big enough to ethically house even half of the fish you mentioned.

[Fishnoodle]

I did consider that, but the LFS confirmed that they would go fine

The display tank in which they were housed together at the shop is even smaller!! Apparently this pair have bred before as well...