This is totally C**p to me but I have to share with you, my male in the juvi tank has now gone nuts, He has bascially gone nuts and eaten my female. I am totally devastated by what is going on at the moment. She is the prettiest Zeb that I have but she isn't anymore. I will now show you pictures of how she came out of the cave (14/2/08) and how she is today (15/2/08).
They are not great but I thought I would show you the decline in her in 24hrs.
I have put her in a breeding trap on her own and treated her with pimafix and melafix. Also noticed that when I caught her out of the main tank she went on her back in the net. she seems to have some damage around her vent area, it is browny red coloured??? I would take a pic but I really don't want to upset her anymore. I was told to get hold of methalene blue (not sure if I spelt that right) but I couldn't get it locally so i'm stuffed!!
I don't think she will make it now but I seriously have my fingers crossed.
Looking at the pictures now I'm not even sure the methalene blue would have worked.
Never say never. If you can give her some place to hide in the trap- even better is her own H tank. Clean water and time are your two best weapons here. I would be disinclined to medicate without seeing actual symptoms that clearly indicate what med to use.
What makes the common person uncommon is common sense.
sounds like your doing everything right, keep the water conditions good and if you can get some meth blue (its antiseptic) and should stop any infections getting hold (pets at home sell it). dont give up, a few times my zebras have had fights and lost their stripes but they get them back in a supprisingly short period of time. i think it looks worse than it actually is.
good luck
My Pleco's:
4 x L46
5 x L174
5 x L134
5 x L287
5 x L257
2 x L236
If it was me, I'd put the MALE in the breeder trap, not the female. She's already stressed enough. When this happened to my subdominant male, I treated immediately with Kanamycin to prevent secondary infection, did daily water changes, and raised the temperature a bit. He did survive, but I most definitely would not wait to see any sign of infection in a fish that badly damaged as by then it could be too late. In very few cases do I recommend prophylactic treatment but this is definitely one of them. IMO, Melafix and Pimafix are all but worthless to do more than help with superficial issues and they can cause potential issues with real medications so I don't recommend them.
so sorry, poor thing. must have been very horny male or reluctant female? if she was red round vent she may have laid eggs, certaily he gave her a lot of stimulus. is he fanning?
I tend to use mela fix and find it quite good, maybe it depends on individual water.
good luck and let us know how she fares.
Sorry about your loss. Unfortunately, we just saw your message today.
For reference: There are two products produced by TAP called Aqua Swab and Aqua Gel. They are available at World of Water (that's where we got ours). They are supposed to be for pond fish and treat ulcers / open wounds. We have tried them on various tropical fish that have been attacked (including ptychochromis species, Leporacanthicus etc) whether they did or didn't develop open wounds. We found them extremely efficient. The symptoms disappeared within 24-48 hours in all but one, very severe, case in which the underlying tissues were also severely damaged and the fish was seriously bleeding (see below). The way they work is they form a "coat" on the fish not allowing the water to get in contact with the wound while they promote healing. In the process they also treated fungus.
Below a photo of one of our male L114 who got "eaten" by another male while he was in his cave guarding eggs. The fish recovered fully after 2 applications of TAP and within 4 days.
That could help assuming the fish didn't suffer any other damage due to the fight.
But how do you know that is was a female?
This is one of the reason why I never leave two plecos in the same cave for more than 2 days. On the third day, I always separate them. This might screw up the breeding pattern and it might take another 3 months or more for them to get together again. But I rather do that than end up with a dead pleco.
One thing I suspect is that it's either they are two males and where fighting for the cave. Obvisously, one of them lost. If there is a gap in their size, the smaller one would've been taught a lesson and let go. However, if they are too closely match, one is bound to die.
A second reason is that the female is too inexperience or affraid to leave the cave. So after being entice to laid eggs, she is supposed to leave and if she doesn't or too afraid and won't leave. The male will start to chew on her until she leaves. This ofcourse can lead to dead females. I've seen this happen twice with my BN plecos and one of my female zebra did have some missing scales on her earlier breedings.
Again, I simply prefers the 3 days rule. It's a much safer practice in my opinion.
