Bullying Leopard Wrasse

[charged]

Hello,
My male Bipartus has been harassing my female to the point where she only comes out a few hours a day. I finally caught the male and have him in a temporary set up. My question is would the Male go back to harassing the female if I put him back in a few weeks? I'd like to add 2 more to my DT if it's safe too.

TY

 

[drawman]

Generally in home aquaria females will transition to males causing aggression. Probably best to only keep one. @evolved can comment more I'm sure.

 

[evolved]

M. bipartitus males can be tricky in compatibility with a closed system. Sometimes they're fine with females, sometimes they're aggressive to the point of killing them. Unfortunately it seems you have one a bit in-between and trending towards the latter area. Best to keep him without any conspecifics, I'm afraid.

 

[Bdog4u2]

You can keep multiple females with one one male usually but if the male is a bully I'd get rid of him and put a few more females in and eventually you'll have another male

 

[jenreefer]

honestly, no room for a bully in my tank. If he is a brute, probably will always be a brute. You are taking a risk by putting him back in with the female.
I concur with buying a few more females and let them sort it out as to who goes male.

 

[charged]

M. bipartitus males can be tricky in compatibility with a closed system. Sometimes they're fine with females, sometimes they're aggressive to the point of killing them. Unfortunately it seems you have one a bit in-between and trending towards the latter area. Best to keep him without any conspecifics, I'm afraid.

To bad. He is beautiful fish. I had 3 go in at the same time. 1 died after a few weeks, 1 turned to a male quickly and grew fast. been in 3 years but didn't start harassing until 6 months ago. Would I be OK adding 2 females?

TY

 

[evolved]

Would I be OK adding 2 females?

Maybe? There's no way to be certain with that.
Usually, once a male flips the aggression switch, it's turned on for good. You could end up with 3 dead females.
There's also a chance that if his aggression tenancies are mild, having 3 females to disperse it on could be helpful.

If it were me, I would decide if I wanted to keep the male only, or re-home him in favor of multiple females. However, it's worth noting that if one of those females eventually transitions without this male, you could experience the same problem again. That's not likely, but certainly possible.

 

[charged]

Maybe? There's no way to be certain with that.
Usually, once a male flips the aggression switch, it's turned on for good. You could end up with 3 dead females.
There's also a chance that if his aggression tenancies are mild, having 3 females to disperse it on could be helpful.

If it were me, I would decide if I wanted to keep the male only, or re-home him in favor of multiple females. However, it's worth noting that if one of those females eventually transitions without this male, you could experience the same problem again. That's not likely, but certainly possible.

I figured that. TY for your help. Hate to see him go.