L260 Aggression .... help !!

[elaine]

Well just a quick update,

She's still hanging on , which is a surprise as I didn't expect her to make it through the night. Still in a very bad way, god knows what damage has been done internally. I've medicated the tank and just have to wait. The rest are fine today. No more scuffed and tatty fins, so I reckon alpha male is staying in the fry saver for a bit.

Thanks for all your help and best wishes, I'm gutted at loosing my little Queens !

 

[Bigjohnnofish]

from experience when this happens its time to move your male on....
when they get old they get nasty... particularly 260's but i have seen it with 333's and 66's too.....

i have 3m2f in my 260 colony and apart from the initial biffo sorting out the pecking order its been pretty good... but a colony i had before i had a rogue male and i had to isolate him as he was not only killing his own kind he was killing giant whiptails too.... i ended up putting a huge albino male b/n in with him... and he got his own back... albino beat him up pretty good!!! :clap::clap::clap:

 

[Joby]

Hope she pulls through for you elaine :yes:

I have a naughty male 260 and a naughty male 174 in isolation :wb: must be all that testosterone :whistle:

 

[macvsog23]

Hope she pulls through for you elaine :yes:

I have a naughty male 260 and a naughty male 174 in isolation :wb: must be all that testosterone :whistle:

I just love the idear of the fish concept of naughty :clap::clap::clap:

 

[elaine]

Funny you should mention the L174's Joby, I have 2 fat ladies and the boys are really slugging it out atm. At least they are concentrating on each other and leaving the girls alone LOL !

 

[bigbird]

silly boys :wb:........we never learn....:lol:

 

[elaine]

Well it's bad news, the female died today.
I've never seen this level of aggression before. hard to believe such cute little plecs can do this sort of damage. Sorry for the awful pics, but it just lets you see the harm that was done by another plec.

 

[Jamie24]

gutted, know how you feel, never nice loosing a fish..





J

 

[thegeeman]

Heart breaking aint it:cry::cry:

 

[RobHarrison]

Aww im sorry, she really does look like she had one heck of a beating

 

[bigbird]

sorry sorry sorry...........i am gutted. thought she might pull through..sorry...cheers jk

 

[rickyjjuk]

So sorry to hear that It's a shame as we try to take such good care of them !! But I guess nature just happens sometimes ??

 

[macvsog23]

So sorry to hear that It's a shame as we try to take such good care of them !! But I guess nature just happens sometimes ??

Nature happens all the time we just make vain attempts to control or stop it.
Mate eat die the 3 laws.

 

[Jacqueline]

How sad for the lose of your female :cry:

I have had the exact same problem here with my breeding group of L260. I had 3 females and 5 males to begin with. Just after the first spawn I found the heavy battered female hanging on to dear life....... She also didn't make it to the next day :cry:
I solved the problem by removing all males except the dominant one and the most quiet male (subdominant). Then put the 2 remaining females and the 2 males back into the tank.
Never had any problems since......... Better say that in a whisper........

I think L260 are extremely sensative to aggression from other males in a breeding setup. Maybe the dominant male gets so wound up, he gets aggressive during spawning. Or maybe he's disturbed by the other males in the group during spawning activities :dk:

I would make a selection amongst your fish. Select the dominant/breeding male and the females you have and then choose an other subdominant male to keep the competition healthy. That's how I work here with my breeding groups.

 

[Big-B]

I'm so sorry for your loss. Looks like she got pretty beat-up. :cry:

 

[Joby]

So sorry to hear she didn't make it elaine :cry: she took a right battering as well :wb:

Are the others settled now?

 

[Zebra Pleco]

I send my regards also, we do our best to keep these fish happy, but theres just a few things we cannot control when we turn the lights off and goto bed ourselves.

 

[zeebo]

sorry you lost her....had been reading ,hoping she would make it, big time bummer , Georgie

 

[elaine]

Thank you for all your kind word !

I'm devastated at loosing my adults. The big male worked his way through 3 adults ..... 2 females and a smaller male. This group had been together happily for about 3 years, with only minor scuff marks and a few tatty fins. Regular breeders with no real problems, until now. All a bit weird as nothing at all had changed in the tank.

I have now removed the alpha male and left only 1 mature breeding male in with the group. See how we get on with that. This whole nightmare has made me very aware of the shocking level of aggression that can suddenly develop within apparently settled groups. Made me a bit paranoid lol ! My male L174 has his female trapped again, and I won't settle until she's safely out. Very hard lesson to learn.

 

[billyjimbo]

That is heartbreaking!, that poor female looks like she got a sustained battering.
They are almost impossible to replace as well. I sincerely hope you dont lose any more.
Good luck, Regards, Bill