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I have seen my Hypans fight and scrape each other up. I have occasionally found a dead one stuck under something, but this is a first for me. Yesterday I was doing a water change etc. on 125 gal. divided so I could park a dozen L173b on one side and about 20-22 L236 on the other. I did a cave check after the refill and I spotted a completely white and decomposing 236 in a cave. I removed the cave and shook out the dead fish into a bucket. In doing so I could tell there was another fish still inside.

It had spread its pectorals so it would not shake out and it was even more badly decomposed than the first fish. I have never seen this before and it also did not make a lot of sense to me. I can understand the deeper in fish having been killed by the one in the front of the cave, but what would have killed that fish?

Any thoughts on what happened here? The two fish were in the range of 2.5+ - 2.75+ inches TL.

Sorry for your loss TTA.

What could have killed the outer fish - Maybe poisoned by the decomposing first fish?

Regards, Eric

Sorry for your loss bud! Could a 3rd fish have been holding them both in the cave? When the farthest inside fish died the 3rd "outside" fish kept him from getting out and died because of the dead one...… possible at least I think.

Take care,
Chuck

Sorry to hear that. Always a sad moment to find dead bodies

I would go with Chuck's explanation. At least I had the same thought when I read your post.

One of the reasons I like to have caves with two open ends on my juvenile and grow out tanks. Bamboo is great for this. Super cheap and efficient and comes in various sizes for youngsters of different spawns.

Sorry for your loss TTA. I would also agree with Chuck's explanation unless your caves are not long enough for 3 plecos?

Most of the fish in the tank are old/large enough to spawn and have been doing so. While not impossible, I doubt 3 fish could fit in the cave in question.

I think the likely cause is the fact that I had to disrupt their normal tank due to ongoing home construction. I had to move them into a different room. This changed the layout they have lived with for the past year. The result may have been related to their trying to establish new territories and claim caves. Initially I figured it would be about a week in the temporary tank, but life never seems to have the same schedule as we want, and this is the case here.

Since the construction which caysed me to have to move them was completed, I had planned to move them back into their permanent space. This was stalled due to other construction issues. I hope to get them back this coming weekend.

This whole episode is yet one more example of the yin and yang in my system. I often have spawns and deaths happen in close proximity. I just had a spawn for my wild 173s, there are recent fry from the fi1 group 0f 173. The 183b had a spawn as did the other group of 236 from Glaser. There are fry all over the 450 tank. About the only plecos not spawning are the two zebra groups. And even they are acting a bit spawnerish.

So I guess I will just have to keep on taking some bad with the good. It is the way the universe reminds us we are never as smart nor successful as we think we are. Just when I thought I had seen most of it, I was reminded I have not....