aurantimaculata advice...

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
D

-DC-

Polypterus
MFK Member
Sep 3, 2009
1,606
112
96
Canada
Hey I have a bit of a dilemma and I was hoping someone on here with firsthand experience could help me, please don’t just re-write something you read online, I’ve read it all lol,
Have a pair of channa aurantimaculata , they were imported as a pair in late november/early December, and have been housed together right from day one, they get along very well no signs of aggression even when feeding they both seem to “take turns” unlike my Channa Asiatica where the biggest one eats his fill before the other even comes out for a bite. They also tend to share the same cave 99% of the time, if one switches cave’s the other follows. Then this morning I went in for their morning feeding one came out of their favourite cave, it had a bit of fin damage and a ripped up tail. The other wasn’t with it,
Upon inspection the second is down in the plants it has a bit of fin/tail damage, and a big chunk of scales bitten off the top of it head
They are both around 8”-9” right now and up until today seems to get along with absolutely no aggression, nothing has changed in the tank except the top cover, which was a opaque plastic, and was switched yesterday for clear glass, (I wanted to let e bit more light through to the plant cover because tit’s filled in quite a bit.
Any way I’ve switched the top back to the opaque plastic in case it’s the clear top that set them off...
But my question is has anyone had this sort of fight break out between a pair, did I just make them aggressive by switching the top around? Or is this unlikely since the fight broke out at night? Or is it likely I have 2 males in there and should split them, they rant cheap or easy to find here in Canada, So I don’t want one killed off, but I also don’t understand why they would have been friendly with each other at that size if they were both male...
Any advice or opinions?
 
seem like the alpha male is starting to show aggression , did you try adding another cave ?
 
They have lots of caves, driftwood, as well as plastic and real plants (plastic to add extra cover until the real ones get nice and thick)

They always chose to use the same cave , I'm hoping they just got into a dispute I've set up a camera to watch for aggression when I’m not around and will check regularly when I am home,

If they go back to sticking together I’ll assume it was a "lovers quarrel" if they don’t do that soon though one of them getting taken out fo the tank.

I even witnessed them both "building up caves" together (they scoop sand/rock from the bottom and spit it out over there caves to burry them

I was really shocked to see that they turned on each other
 
tank is 4x2x2, get this


I know that this can just be growing pains with a pair as many keepers told me if it was male -male the loser would likly be dead, and that fighting is common between mated pairs, and I had a could people from Europe tell me that pairs will often fight before spawning which i disregarded because mine are still only half adult size,

I've been trying to check often for aggression, several times when I walked into the room they darted away from each other, I thought I’ve been breaking up a fight, I snuck in this time without them seeing me as I wanted to see how bad these fights are before going to bed (it's night again here) and they are balled up, looks like spawning activity... is that possible at 8-10 inches? They aren’t biting just one coiling around the other; I’ve seen videos of this on YouTube.. And looks exactly the same! I figure there too young to be breeding but if they are trying at this age it’s can’t be a bad sign! been at it for a while now!

what a crazy day, went from worried that they aren’t a pair because one tried to kill the other to walking in on spawning activity way ahead of secedual. What an amazing species...
 
do you have pics of both of them ?
 
I have some posted a few threads down, tried to get a video and new pic's last night but I didn’t want to disturb them too much and couldn’t get any good ones...
 
this is quite common even in confirmed pairs, just like many have told u earlier

the aurantis are quite the moody fish, out of the blue they show aggression and then the next they are all calm and docile
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
MonsterFishKeepers.com
Top Bottom