nasty boy

["alex pastor" <alexp@idirect.com>]

I bought a male cacatoides recently in order to not have too much inbreeding
in my stock.  I put him in a 30 gallon with a ripe female and 6 neons as
dithers.

Initially, he was just plain nasty to the female.  (Maybe he'll settle
down.)   Then one day the female disappeared.  She'd barricaded herself into
the coconut shell.  So, I thought they'd spawned.  Periodically she would
come out, tail flap him, take a run at the neons, and go back into her
shell.  That was on friday.  She wasn't yellow and he was not being nasty.

Today, Sunday, I took a good look at what was now happening.  She came out
of the shell, and he went in.  You guessed it - nothing in there!  And he
was harassing her (but not like Bill Clinton).  So, I pulled him out.

I was wondering what to do with this creature.  Should I relegate him to the
guppy tank?  So, I put him in another 30 gallon that has a ripe female, 6
dwarf Gouramis and 4 juvenile cacatoides.  Right now it's "stand off time at
the O.K. Corral" - all the fish have assumed a posture of suspended
animation.  There are a lot of Utah rocks in there, and plenty of hiding
places for everyone in case all hell breaks loose.  But I don't need to see
violence.

The manager at the lfs thinks that this fish may have been originally
imported from Germany via a Montreal wholesaler.  If this fish was a nasty
SOB with potential wife #1, is he a hopeless candidate for wife #2?  Does
this guy have a personality disorder?   I have yet to see a male cacatoides
act like such a jerk. Thankfully the manager told me that I can bring him
back, so at least he won't be imprisoned with guppies for the rest of his
natural life.

G. Kadar




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