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What are those white marks on his third black line on each side?

From fighting. It means one of a few things. Males are arguing over the pecking order. In most cases these are the typical injuries seen, However, things can turn nastier with one male trapping another and trying to kill it. This is one reason for split caves- it lets us open the cave easily and get the loser out before death or serious injury.

The other thing is not all spawning related trapping end with a spawn. Sometimes there is just the effort to keep the lady trapped trying to induce a spawn and this can result in this type of injury.

These injuries where you see white "scrapes" are common and usually heal up quickly once the issues involved are "resolved". More serious damage may heal but result in changing stripe patterns etc. Some times it may be necessary to remove a severely injured fish and treat it in an H tank.

Check out the pics in the Health link at the top of the page.

Thank you.. Im relieved its not a disease related issue. Its kinda wierd that their fighting now? I bought them all together from the same tank and no marks on them. I have 3tubes and a half cave. The 2 wild caughts occupy those. The four f1 stay underneath the bog wood. Now my question is if they are fighting arent 3 tubes and half cave enough for the two wild caughts or one just wants to be bully now?

You put them into a new environment. That means everything past is undone and once again they will compete for space. They need to re-establish territories etc.

Thank you as always Chris. Much appreciated.....