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Checking things out tonight and noticed the winner of my resent Zebra battle is getting red. No wounds or missing fins. He seemed fine this AM. Any ideas? I'm thinking this is bruising from banging around in the cave. But not sure. Two pictures.





Would like thoughts on treatment, if any.

Don

Looks fine to me, except for the red color, have you been feeding him anything that is a pink/red color??? Like brine shrimp, bloodworms, etc?? I notive mine get red like that when they are egg bound or I feed them live bloodworms! Just MO....

I do notice this reddish coloration on recently fighting/spawning fish as well as those that have been introduced to a tank with unsatisfactory water quality.

You have a sick / stressed fish and you have taken it out of the tank and laid it on a peice of wood for a photo
That would only add to the problems IMO.
Stressed/sick fish are best treated with TLC (Tender Loving Care).
A part from the redness she looks great, if you are worried add a few extra large caves(easy to escape from) to reduce the chance of another battle and do a few extra water changes this week to ensure water quality is at its best

I'm a still a bit confused and a little worried. I had five Zebras, three of which always hung out in caves. Always heads in, with tails hanging out. The other two always stayed under some rock overhangs, even though there were more empty caves in the tank. So I assume I had three males and two females. (My L333s do the same) The dead fish is one of the males, the red fish a female, by my behavioural observations. (sp sp)

This red fish was found curled in the rear of a cave, alone. That's why I pulled her. I had to inspect her for damage. I wasn't even sure which fish it was. I had assummed it was the other male combatant. She went right back into the same cave, again all the way to the rear. Now another male is in there with her!

So I'm not sure if he's taking the spoils of war, or just hungry.

Don