Everything you ever wanted to say about "Zebra luvin", but didn't because you thought everyone would take the mickey! Plus general topics for discussion including everything from what you feed them to your personal experiences.
I made this gruesome discovery the other day. I regularly check my caves so I don't know how I missed this. Another male had trapped this male in his cave and killed him, I could not get him out and had to cut the cave open to get them both out. The other male didn't look too good and is now in the QT and seems to be slowly recovering. I wonder what the next disaster will be.
Last edited by Adam on Tue Aug 02, 2005 2:16 am, edited 2 times in total.
Im very sad to see that happen to you, Adam!!! Hopefully you got that snatching the eggs thing down by now so you can start to recoupe from this!!! One more thing maybe to help us out, if this happens....did you notice an wierd activities?? were they fighting crazy?? I saw this same thing like two days ago on another forum and it looks just like yours!!!!
I didn't notice anything out of the ordinary, the males usually have little scuffles amongst themselves but it usually sorts itsef out. I guess it didn't quite happen like that this time. I can't understand why they decided to fight to the death over this one cave when there are more caves than males in the tank. I guess it must have been in a position they both liked.
I have seen males try to jump into a cave that is already occupied by another male but they don't usually make it inside. This pair must have been fairly evenly matched. The sad thing is that the male that has been killed appears to be the Alpha male which explains why there has not been any more spawns in the tank. Looks like the remaining males will have to battle it out for supremecy and Alpha status. Equally sad is that the other male has also spawned before and his recovery is touch and go at the moment. Looks like he may have lost an eye.
Another lesson learnt, except I'm not quite sure how I could have avoided this one.
Adam
Last edited by Adam on Tue Aug 02, 2005 10:11 am, edited 1 time in total.
Oh my gosh Adam... You must have been so stunned when you first saw that. How awful!! I try to do a headcount every day and when I can't see them all almost straight away, I do start to panic.
What a shame that it was the Alpha male... and especially because the victor, and therefore presumably the next Alpha, is in such bad shape. I will say a little fishy prayer for you and your Zebs and I hope it all works out OK.
Sorry to hear this bit of bad news.Dont blame yourself as the only way this can be avoided is to have only one male to each breeding tank.As you are aware, this happened to me too with 2 different hypancistrus wanting the same cave, and the zebra dieing from its injuries and fungal infection.
Make sure you use some anti fungal preperation in with the other fish as fungus is very dificult to get rid off once it has a hold.
Thanks to everyone for the kind words and the offer of a hug shell.
I was checking the injured second male today and he appears to be making progress. His fins don't appear to be so frayed anymore but his left eye is still "cloudy". I've got him on a course of esha 2000 at the moment and will be extending the treatment to five days, luckily none of his wounds have become infected with fungus. I remain hopeful that he will pull through but I dont hold out much hope for his damaged eye.
Looks like there will not be any spawns from the tank he came from for a while until an Alpha male emerges from the remaining males. I noticed two males fighting over the replacement cave I positioned in the same spot where the incident happened. I've since moved the cave to another location as I don't want a repeat of what happened if at all possible.
My advice to everyone is to be vigilent of cave trappings as it may not be a male and female that are in there.
