L134 two female killed in tree days, help !

[piwi]

Hello,

I’ve got a big problem with my L134 breeding group. For the last 3 days two of the female L134 where killed ! They both had several flesh wounds on the back peaces missing at the tale.

I think that they had a fight with one of the males who would like to keep the female in his cage. The strange thing is that these fish (3 male and 8 female) (now 6 female) are living together for a year now and there never where problems !

The thank is 100x40x40 with 8 caves in it. Can anyone explain what is going one ? Why the two females were killed and what can I do to stop this ?

Thanks a lot !

[SOBERKITTY]

Could 11 fish but only 8 caves be the problem. I have been under the impression that with cats they are each supposed to have a hiding spot available to them. Yes? No?

[Janne]

Males can be quite agressive when they trapped a female inside their cave, if the female not are ready for spawning and the cave is to tight for the female to struggle her way out the male can bite her so much that she dies later. I always check the caves every day, study the pair that are in a cave for eventual spawn...if they not have spawned within 3 maybe 4 days I take them out. It's both a good and bad sign when these happen for you, the good is that they are in breeding conditions and the bad is that something makes them uncertain to breed.
Try with some larger water changes, if the temp is at the lower 26-27 C raise the temp to 28-30 C...make changes that improves their will to breed.

Janne

[piwi]

Thanks for the replies,

As i mentioned before in an other topic: 1 already got 3 nests from my l134 breeding Group so some of the females are ready.. The temperature is 28 degrees so this should be good. I already ordered 10 extra caves so there will be room for every fish. Do you think I should buy two new females or is 3 male and 6 female ok ?

[apistomaster]

Sounds like a rough crowd. I have been surprised at how long a female will remain in a cave with a male, and yes, they sometimes look like they have been roughed up but never so much as to result in a death.
My caves are about 2.4 cm per side and 10 cm long. Enough room for a desperate female to escape, I believe.

[piwi]

The caves I use are specialy made fore l134, the biger caves they never spawn in... So far no more l134 were killed, so fingers crossed.... I just hope that de females who were killed not the females where who gave al the nests in the past...