Well, I wish I would have updated sooner, but things only really 'hit the fan' within the past day or so. In a nutshell, the male in particular was getting quite aggressive---kinda like what you were describing, chrispyweld.
Needless to say, I got rid of the firemouths. :?
Why did I get rid of them?
Well, my $30.00 leopard frog pleco ended up dying, and I'm pretty sure it was the male FM that stressed him to death. See, I did a few things wrong with this setup. Having the 4 raphael cats in with 2 fancy plecos was a big mistake, IMO. The leopard frog plec had been showing signs of starvation---even despite loading the tank up with food for these guys---and I think a lot of it had to do with the raphaels being such pigs and gobbling it all up before the plecos really had a chance. The male firemouth would attack all bottomdwellers, but of course the raphaels were barely phased by any of it. The plecos, on the other hand, seemed to tolerate this pestering rather poorly. Stress just seemed to be adding up, leading to starvation.
My first mistake in this poorly thought-out plan to 'fix' things was pulling all the raphael cats out of the tank. I figured hey, if they're the ones stealing all the food, then maybe removing them will give the plecos more to feast on. I should have realized at the time that this only resulted in the plecos becoming even bigger targets for the male FM. I think this ultimately led to the death of the leopard frog pleco. In retrospect, I should have gotten rid of the firemouths sooner.
After the death of the leopard frog pleco, I couldn't help but stay really focused on my other pleco (the peppermint pleco). I noticed the male FM chasing him all over the tank, and the pleco seemed awfully stressed about the whole ordeal. He'd go on scavenging missions in a desperate attempt to fill his belly (which appeared sunken-in); only to be met with attacks from the FM. I decided enough's enough and ultimately chose to keep the pleco instead of the firemouths. I just hope the pleco will pull through okay following this whole ordeal.
So where does that leave me now?
This tank now has one 2-3" peppermint pleco (which I've read will hit 6-7"), a large school of silvertip tetras, and that's it... Not sure where to take things from here... My crayfish breeding project has been taking up a lot of my attention as of late.
Sorry to have hit a dead end with this one guys.
I would have loved to see what was gonna be in store for this FM 'pair' I had in the making, but I just didn't wanna have to lose another pleco in the process. The remaining pleco is my favorite, so I'm hoping he'll pull through and stay with me for the long haul.
BV :?