[FishBish25]

I had a female and decided to add three more rams 2 weeks ago. The three rams that I added are a lot smaller than her and everything seemed fine but the aggression has really picked up this week. She’s the most passive out of the group while the others chase and harass each other. They’re super aggressive with her and don’t seem to really leave her alone(chase her around, nip her). I don’t see any wounds but it does look like she has some stress stripes going on? The weird thing is that once I added these three rams, she obviously mated with one of them because she dropped some eggs. The eggs are now gone and the one she mated with is the one who is super aggressive towards her.
It’s not really pleasant to watch her get bullied and I’m afraid I’ve messed up her life in a way. Is this type of aggression normal or do the little ones need to go?

I have attached a pic of her looking a bit stressed and my 40 breeder(although I have a lot of hiding spots, I added a rock in the middle of the tank in the hope of solving the issue)

 

[Auballagh]

Hello.
And, welcome to Cichlid-Forum!
-
That is a nice aquarium. Set up with a lot of live aquatic plants and what looks like plenty of cover... this looks like a good tank for keeping Bolivian Rams.
So yes, it looks like you have a stressed out female Ram. To cause that, it's possible you added three MALES to the tank! If you can positively identify the male your female spawned with, you may want to pull the other male Rams out of the tank. Otherwise, I would keep an eye on the female. And, if it looks like she is getting harassed and harried to no end in there, you may have to pull her out for placement into quarantine. And, then I believe you may have a choice.

• Keep the 'Three Amigos' in there, as an all male group. (Without the female in the tank with them, everyone will eventually decide on dominance and pecking order and will settle down for you).
  or -
• Keep one of those males and your female as a pair of Bolivian Rams for this aquarium.

 

[FishBish25]

Hello.
And, welcome to Cichlid-Forum!
-
That is a nice aquarium. Set up with a lot of live aquatic plants and what looks like plenty of cover... this looks like a good tank for keeping Bolivian Rams.
So yes, it looks like you have a stressed out female Ram. To cause that, it's possible you added three MALES to the tank! If you can positively identify the male your female spawned with, you may want to pull the other male Rams out of the tank. Otherwise, I would keep an eye on the female. And, if it looks like she is getting harassed and harried to no end in there, you may have to pull her out for placement into quarantine. And, then I believe you may have a choice.

• Keep the 'Three Amigos' in there, as an all male group. (Without the female in the tank with them, everyone will eventually decide on dominance and pecking order and will settle down for you).
  or -
• Keep one of those males and your female as a pair of Bolivian Rams for this aquarium.

Thank you so much for your reply!
I had a sneaky suspicion that the Three Amigos were all male so I took two back. There are still minor squabbles where her mate is super rude to her (she's so sweet and never fights back) but it's definitely better and so far, less frequent.

 

[sir_keith]

Minor squabbles are part and parcel of pair bind formation in cichlids. Unless he is damaging or harassing her excessively, just leave them alone and let nature take its course. Good luck.