Unhappy couple

[sixspeed]

Hey everyone, i have had a mated pair of true perculas in my 75 gallon for about 6 or 7 months and they have been getting along great up until about a week ago. The male has been chasing and nipping at the female, the female is showing faded color and some ripped fins from being pestered all the time. It has gotten to the point where she will hide pretty much all the time and if she comes out into the open the male will instantly chase her into hiding again.

Nothing has changed in the tank to warrant this different behavior. What should i do? I thought about setting up a qt tank for her and then reintroduce the female once she has fully recovered, but i dont know if that will be the fix for the problem.

 

[fatdaddy]

It does sound like the female isn't doing well. I'd be more inclined to trap the male as he can take the stress of a new environment. Just leave the female in peace and see if you can build her back up with some spot feeding.

My male has picked on the female a few times just to get her to back off a little as she is usually doing the bullying. But, nothing like what you're describing.

 

[sixspeed]

So throw the male into qt for a little while till the female recovers?

 

[AquaReeferMan]

How do you know they are mated? The behavior that you are describing sounds odd from a male. What are the sizes of both fish. The female should be rather larger. It doesnt sound right. The male should show no aggression towards the female nor should there be any reason to do so. It sounds like you got 2 juveniles and the more dominant clown in trying to establish itself over the smaller one to become the female. Ive never seen or heard of a male trying to challenge a female like this. I could see it happening in a larger group of clowns but not a pair.

 

[sixspeed]

There is a distinct size difference between the two clowns. They got a long great till a week or so ago. "slept" together, swam around the tank practically joined at the hip. The female seemed to of come down with a disease about a month ago but overcame that. Do you think that because she was weakened by the disease that the male for some reason tried to express it dominance over the female?

 

[AquaReeferMan]

Is the female the larger clown? How big are they? I dont know maybe the male sensed she was sick and would possilby die and figured it was his time. If this is the case you will have to remove one of them for good. Two females will not co-exist. They will fight till only one remains.

 

[fatdaddy]

I think AquaReeferMan is right. You can QT one of them for a short period, but if they continue fighting, you'll need to separate the two. You can then add a new Juvie to attempt to get a pair.

I like the bottle trap, but I found that it's hard to catch the same fish twice within a few weeks. Either fish are smarter then most people think, or my fish are just smarter then me.

 

[sixspeed]

thanks guys, i will try putting the male into qt for a week or so then reintroduce him. see if the female can gain some strength back and setup a territory around the tank.