Aggressive behavior in shelter cat... Help!?

I've tried general research online, but have not found any suggestions that have helped so far.

I adopted a cat from a local rescue just about a year ago. He was about a year old at the time and had been at the shelter for most of his life, according to his paperwork. He has a very sweet personality... 90% of the time. Playful, sweet, loves people, cuddling, naps, and doesn't show any sort of food aggression.

However, the resident older cat (about 6 years old now) is very passive, enjoys being alone, and doesn't have a mean bone in his body. Both are male and neutered.

Rescue cat will be very aggressive in random intervals. He has scratched the older cat's eye (older cat was taken to the vet and taken care of appropriately), will do noticable damage to the older cat like tearing up fur, biting ears, and leaving scratches all over the poor guy.

I've tried (almost?) everything with the younger cat, separated feeding, plenty of litter boxes, playing for literal hours a day (he is smart, knows tricks and plays fetch), pheromone plugins, spraying with a water bottle when he stalks his brother, positive reinforcement for good behavior, dozens of toys, and basically monitoring constantly him unless I'm literally asleep.

I know they can get along. They sleep in the same bed with me almost every night. They groom each other and play together. MOST of the time, everything is fine. But then...

I've been woken up by my older cat hissing/screaming because the rescue cat waits until he knows no one is watching to be bad. Rescue cat now gets locked in the bathroom because otherwise he tears up carpet and destroys other parts of the home if he can't get out.

I am worried about my older cat being hurt and feeling stressed. I don't want to give up the rescue because overall he is a very sweet boy. But lately I've been considering returning the rescue to the shelter because my older cat takes priority. He doesn't seem happy.

Is there anything else I might not have tried that could help? At this point, I'll try almost anything. I love both of these cats so much.

submitted by /u/Minute_Hawk
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from Pets https://www.reddit.com/r/Pets/comments/g2vcb0/aggressive_behavior_in_shelter_cat_help/