Re: Domestic violence...

["Darren J. Hanson" <djhanson@calweb.com>]

At 11:52 PM 9/14/97 -0500, Michael W McGrath wrote:
>I have a trio of Apisto. cacatuoides in a 20 gallon long tank.
>It's nicely planted, and the 2 females have staked out some turf.
>One female has spawned in her cave and spends her time there. The 
>other female has been chased for 2 days by the male. Today I noticed
>she has her tail fin is spli in two horizontally. She also
>has a small circular spot on her forehead, between the eyes, that looks
>like bite mark from one of the other apistos. What can I do about the
>fins? What about this 'wound' that was not there Friday? Should I place
>her in a hospital tank?? Should I get some medicine to prevent any 
>sort of infection?? Now I have never had any 'serious' domestic
>violence in my tanks so I am sorta new to this aspect of the hobby.

Mike - When I first began keeping Apistos I was told to keep dither fish and
more than one female per male.  I soon learned that neither was practical.
(At least not for me.) I have set up three female A. cacatuoides and three
seperate flower pots and one male. All three females are ready. When this
male chooses a female I will then remove the other two. I will then set
those two females up with another male and so on. I have found that once a
male and female pair off they BOTH will begin attacking the other female. To
them, even though they have existed together, this extra female is now
considered a threat and an intruder. I would remove her to a hospital tank
with just clean water, a filter and heater (if needed). (I've been spawning
fish for the past 10 years as a business and people who know me know I don't
believe in using medications if I can help it.)

Case in point:  I had a pair of Ancistrus temminckii (Bristlenose plecos) in
a planted community tank with a sponge filter. This tank also contained 6
clown loaches. Now, these clown loaches like to get into the current of the
uplift tube of the filter. Apparently so did the female pleco. For several
days I couldn't find her. When my fiance went to clean the filter he found
her. AND a clown loach! The pleco had gone in first, head first, and then
the loach. Since they could not reverse they direction the loach began
eating the pleco! When we took her out her tail and her body from the dorsal
back was completely devoid of any scales! She was slowly being eaten alive.
I quickly removed her to another tank with the male (because I didn't want
to take a chance on the same thing happening to him) and I made sure the
water conditions were kept at optimum and watched her very closely several
times a day. I added to medication. She has since healed. Gotten back all
her scales and a part of her tail. She will be deformed and definitely not a
show fish.

The reason I told this story is not every situation requires medication. She
needs rest from being harrassed by both tank mates and probably will require
a good diet to bring her back into good health. If she seems to start
developing fungus, by all means treat it. If you see no fungus, just let her
heal herself. She eventually will just like my female pleco did.

I hope this helps.

- --- Kaycy