Help !

[Wills]

Hi need some major help with issues in my tank - Ive got a dead swordtail, eaten eggs and a terrified stressed female honduran red point

First I'll give you the water stats

Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 10
Ph - 7.6

Tank was fishless cycled and has had fish in for around 5 weeks now

Tank is a Fluval 125 with standard filter + a twin internal one as well for extra filtration.
I have a Co2 bubble ladder system in the tank
Plants are an XL Java Fern plant on wood
with giant valis.

Decoration are mainly the wood and plants but I have some round river rocks
and some coconut shells.

3 weeks ago I added one pair of Honduran Red Points

On Saturday I added 4 montezuma sword tails (SP) and 1 L235 flyer plec all from a reliable
and trusted supplier and all were doing well till last night when the male had a scuffle with
my male honduran red point and got slammed into the Co2 unit he had a slight graze but it was
around 11:30pm so was going to get some melafix (think thats the right one) this morning but
when I woke up I found him dead on the gravel. The remaining females seem to be doing fine and
the plec is fine and fairly active.

On Saturday while I was at the LFS the Honduran Red Points spawned in the coconut shell - the
female guarded them constantly just coming out for food. But these got fungus I opened the shell
up this morning as the female had stopped guarding them and they had been eaten. So I rinsed
the remnants off and put it back in the tank - they were all gone I'm more than certain.

But now she has gone solid blue lost all her stripes looks very stressed and is now hanging out
at the side of the filter near the surface but not gasping more hiding and looking stressed. She
occasionally drifts out to hide in the java fern but if he sees her he chases her back till she hides.

The male is fine just ruling the roost though his bars look faint when he goes near the female.

Please help me I really dont know what to do will the female be ok? Is this just normal behavior
when eggs go wrong? And should I take the remaining swords back and re consider some kind of
larger tank mate?

Thanks again for any help Wills

 

[minxfishy]

Is the male harrassing the female by any chance, I had this with my pair of aureus, the male wanted to spawn again, she didnt, he killed her.

The swordtail sounds like it took a battering, so that was probably the cause of death, have you checked the co2 levels at all? Im not up on co2 but too much and it drops the ph down or can lead to lack of oxygen I believe.

 

[Wills]

When shes not hiding he chases her a lot till she can slip away and hide. Would it help if I added an other female? To see if they will work as a trio? Or will the dominant female take over?

The water is well oxygenated by the filter outlet and the plant always has bubbles on the leaves which rise when a fish swims by. Though I am tempted to take it out as Java Fern does not particularly need it.

 

[minxfishy]

Thats why she is hiding then, she isnt ready to spawn again. Adding another female I doubt would help. Anyway you can seperate them, either by removing the male to another tank or by placing a divider in the tank to allow her time to recover and be ready to spawn again, he will just keep going until she is so exhausted.

 

[star4]

I have a similar problem when my Kribs spawn (they always eat the eggs) I remove the male for a few days to let the female recover in the tank she is use to. Soon has she has her colour back and is eating well I re introduce the male. it works for me.

 

[Wills]

The only other tank I have is a 10g? I dont think the male would do well in there but the female might - Do you think this would be a good option?

If I got an internal filter unit and added it full of the media from my other filters (pads are due for a swap soon) would this be able to support her in there?

 

[minxfishy]

Might be a good idea to move her for a few days, when you do re-introduce her, keep a very close eye on them, he may well not accept her straight away.

Yes, use some media from your established filter and that will be fine for her in the 10g.

 

[Wills]

Ok I will go out to get a spare filter tomorrow and set up the tank as I am unable today - will have to hope for the best - I may also try the tank divider I can separate her into part of the tank so she has to coconut shells to hide in and he will have the rest of the tank.


- Have to admit if this becomes a regular problem I may have to think about re homing them

Thanks very much for all your help

 

[Wills]

we've made a decision to see how things go until Saturday - at which point we will either let things continue or rehome the honduran red points and the remaining swordtails and keep the plec and start again not an ideal out come or what I had hoped for but if it must be it must be