My alpha male dead ????

[craigzeb]

After 2 years of none stop spawning I finally made time to strip the tank down and fish out all the little ones and not so little ones.
After moving all the little ones to another tank I put all my 9 large Zebs back in their tank but doing this think I upset my alpha male as I not seen him in his cave for the last few wks.
Then the last 2 nights I think he was back in his cave but couldn't tell as his stripes had been eaten off fighting I think then to my horror I turned lights on last night and in the 4 years I've had them I had my 1st loss and found a male stripeless and upside down not moving under some wood
Hard to tell if it was the alpha as couldn't see his markings but will tell over the next few days hopefully I have not lost him and maybe it was 1 of them trying to take over and he's killed them gutted either way to loose my fish

[TwoTankAmin]

Bear in mind that the males are very territorial and competitive. It is not uncommon for a stronger male to trap a rival in a cave and kill it. That is one of the things that led to the development of spit caves which can be taken apart (taking out eggs or wigglers was another reason). One sign that a group of males are establishing a pecking order is one will see white patches and damaged stripes as a sign of fighting.

Sometimes braking down a tank to catch fish, especially if it is not put back together close to the the way it was before, can result in the established territories being changed. This means they will have to fight for spots again. I have always tried to return things as close to the original layout as I can, but especially the arrangement/placement of the caves.

It hurts to lose zebras, you have my sympathies.

[craigzeb]

I'm gutted to loose 1 I've lost a couple new babies but loosing 1 of my big ones is not good
I did put the tank back exactly the way I had it as I didn't want my alpha to loose his cave
I know about the fighting marks as I've seen them before but the stripes have grown back no problem after water changes
Like I said hopefully wasn't my alpha male but it's not looking good as nobody has been in the main spawning cave for days now
If it as him hopefully the new alpha will keep on spawning for me as the old 1 was at it all the time they just kept on coming
I now have another tank full off young from the wild ones
The misses wants them gone soon as I have 3 tanks going and she getting sick off them

[TwoTankAmin]

Does she know they are like money in the bank.

And if you wanted gutted, due to toxic bags between Oct 2014 and this past July I lost a dozen zebras. 5 of them were adult F1s. Thw rest were 1.5 to 1.75 inches. I lost other fish as well from the same cause.

[mikeyboy31175]

sorry to hear that mate my be time to reduce numbers in that tank new young one.s moving up the ladder ?