I have a very strange story to tell you, if anyone have advice / clues on it, please tell me.
I recently acquired ( 3 month ago ) 9 apisotogramma nijsseni wild, 2 male and 7 females. I kept them in a 3 feet front tank , wich contained 55 gallons. The tank was filled with very soft, acidic water from my RO unit and it was heavily planted. All was fined, they were eating like pigs, displaying all the colors they are capable of and fighting each other , in a few words, they seemed to be very healthy. There was 8 cardinals and a few catfish, so they were quite alone in this big tank.
Problems began when a couple was formed and spawned... In the first days, all was fine: the female took care of the area near the spawning spot and the male took care of protectin a large territory, nearly half the tank. Then, after 2-3 days of free swimming and artemias feeding, my other apisto began to die with no reason. No symptoms, no weird behavior, I just found them dead, with no marks, no bruises or anything else. I thought it was maybe because of my water quality, but if adults were to die from this, the fry would have died too ( IMO ) since a fry is generally much more fragile.
The carnage went on until there were only the happy couple left and few cardinals. All catfishes were found dead, like the other Nijsseni. I must say that my dominant male was huge, about 6-7 cm. Since that, I moved the couple in a 14 gallons tanks. All seemed fine, but I found the female dead by the next morning. The tank was filled with water from the other tank....
Is it possible that this male killed every other in the tank ?? Is it common for Nijsseni to act this way ? Or was it a very, very bad luck??
Any answers would be greatly appreciated !
Thanks a lot !
Philippe
I recently acquired ( 3 month ago ) 9 apisotogramma nijsseni wild, 2 male and 7 females. I kept them in a 3 feet front tank , wich contained 55 gallons. The tank was filled with very soft, acidic water from my RO unit and it was heavily planted. All was fined, they were eating like pigs, displaying all the colors they are capable of and fighting each other , in a few words, they seemed to be very healthy. There was 8 cardinals and a few catfish, so they were quite alone in this big tank.
Problems began when a couple was formed and spawned... In the first days, all was fine: the female took care of the area near the spawning spot and the male took care of protectin a large territory, nearly half the tank. Then, after 2-3 days of free swimming and artemias feeding, my other apisto began to die with no reason. No symptoms, no weird behavior, I just found them dead, with no marks, no bruises or anything else. I thought it was maybe because of my water quality, but if adults were to die from this, the fry would have died too ( IMO ) since a fry is generally much more fragile.
The carnage went on until there were only the happy couple left and few cardinals. All catfishes were found dead, like the other Nijsseni. I must say that my dominant male was huge, about 6-7 cm. Since that, I moved the couple in a 14 gallons tanks. All seemed fine, but I found the female dead by the next morning. The tank was filled with water from the other tank....
Is it possible that this male killed every other in the tank ?? Is it common for Nijsseni to act this way ? Or was it a very, very bad luck??
Any answers would be greatly appreciated !
Thanks a lot !
Philippe
