Found my Juvie dead in cave

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wu19
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Location: Bergen County, New Jersey

Found my Juvie dead in cave

Post by wu19 »

I found my potential female dead :? in the cave. Eyes, tail was eaten :(. I'm so freaking mad. I don't understand and I can't find my little one. I have two wild caught males and four f1. There was an f1 that was always larger than the rest. He/she would be in and out an empty cave. If he/she wasn't under the bog wood it would be in a cave. I'm left with two small juvies. One has deformed fins and I have two males. I work from 7:00am-3:30pm. I feed daphnia, Cyclopes eeze, Thera A, shrimp pellets, squid, brine shrimp eggs and mini blood worms. I feed at 11:00pm before I go to bed. I came out of work and found he/she in the cave eyes eaten fins eaten. Smh. The other I can't find. It was the smallest. I don't understand? From 11pm-3:30 one male decided to kill? Nothing has changed since I purchased them in feb. I use distill water have four caves. 2 always stay empty. I notice the wild caught males would bounce from cave to cave at times. The f1 would be under the bog wood. Tough blow. I really thought he/she was a female. I would stare and she looked pretty. I may sound crazy but I felt he/she was a female. Just wanted to share with everyone.
wu19
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Re: Found my Juvie dead in cave

Post by wu19 »

I'm flashing the light in the cave of one of the wild caughts and it starts to come to the front of the cave and flaring up its fins and looking at me doing shivering motions. Twitching at me??? I never seen this behavior before. It never mind the light? Weird?
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TwoTankAmin
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Re: Found my Juvie dead in cave

Post by TwoTankAmin »

It is not uncommon for males to try to kill each other. Normally fights end up with some injuries and then the loser runs away and hides. Occasionally things get much more deadly. One male will trap another in a cave and ultimately kill it. It is a simple case of dominance and eliminating the competition. Sometimes its a fast death and other times takes a day or two. In the latter case one has time to break it up. This is one of the rationals behind the design of the split caves which one can open up either to break up fights or to remove eggs/wigglers if one is so inclined.

It sounds to me like your fish were in pre-spawning mode as this is the other big source of conflict besides territorial ones. Continue to monitor things as it can be hard to reach conclusions from short term behavior. It may be indicative of nothing but it can also be the onset of problems.

Also- you do know that using 100% ro/di or distilled water is not a good thing to do longer term without adding back essential minerals etc? "Pure" water should either be mixed with one's tap or else reconstituted via additives.
What makes the common person uncommon is common sense.
wu19
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Re: Found my Juvie dead in cave

Post by wu19 »

Thank you Chris as always. I'm so disappointed :cry: I'm down to 4 now. :|
Ocelot2000
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Re: Found my Juvie dead in cave

Post by Ocelot2000 »

I'm so sorry to hear that. Must be heartbreaking!
I have an adult male and two juveniles in my tank. Now I'm worried. Does the aggression only come about when there is a mating pair or anytime?
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