The problem with apistos

[Scott <zerelli@yahoo.com>]

Wow, these are certainly agressive fish. I posted that
I had acquired a reverse trio of sp. rotpunkt. Well I
noticed that the best looking male was not very nice.
In fact he was so not nice that he tracked down the
other male in a 125 gallon, heavily planted tank and
did him in (through stress most likely as I last saw
the late male when he was eating). Unfortunately it
appears that the female has also been done in. She was
last spotted hiding in some plants near the surface
(not gasping at the surface I watched her dart out to
grab food before the aggressive male nailed her). I
have spotted the remains of what I think was the other
male (rendered a skeleton in an amazingly short time
by ghost shrimp and snails), but have never spotted
the female. I did pull a large quanitity of plants
from this tank, but was semi-careful about not
removing any fish. My question is this, how small of
space can a female use to spawn? Also, will she stay
in with the eggs or will she come out to chase away
fish that come near her hideout? It is remotely
possible that she holed up somewhere, but I suspect
the worse. Shoudl I try more females (if by small
chance I find them again) or just enjoy my one (albeit
spectacular) specimen of apisto?

Thanks,
Scott

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