My big fish all hiding?

[ragin_cajun]

125 gallon tank. 7 inch Lyonsi, 6-7 inch Synspilum, 3-4 inch Jack Dempsey, smaller (2-3 inch) Firemouth, Sajica, 2 Vieja, 5 Clown Loaches. The big fish have each dug their own hole all of a sudden, they don't come out to eat, all they do is work on digging their hole. Ammonia= 0, Nitrite=0, Nitrate=10-20. Temp is 79 Degrees. What's up with this. A week ago, they were all swimmin around and eating 2-3 times a day. Now, it's totally different. Normal?

 

[jgentry]

Could be related to the season change if nothing else has changed in your tank. If they are females they may just be in breeding mode.

 

[ragin_cajun]

I'm pretty sure the Lyonsi is a male (Rapps said it was). I'm kinda sure the JD is a male (red trim around the dorsal fin and tail fin), and the Syn I have no idea. Change in season--I've often wondered about that. Fish in the woods react to temp, they have a spawning season (right about now for some of them), and I wondered if fish in a tank would react to seasons, and weather fronts moving in, etc.

 

[ragin_cajun]

Nothing's changed in the tank at all, other than the Lyonsi taking top position from the Synspilum few days ago.

 

[xraycer]

I'm thinking "nesting".................but not eating? hmm

 

[ragin_cajun]

what does "nesting" mean? time of the year? they'll go back to normal in a week or two? this happen every season? like spawning season or something? talk to me like a child man, cause this is very strange behavior indeed. and only the older fish are doing it. the younger fish/smaller ones, they're swimming around like normal. Lyonsi has a great big foxhole in the middle of the tank, looks like a bomb hit it.

 

[xraycer]

nesting = prepping a nest site for breeding

 

[ragin_cajun]

They nest before they pair off with another fish? MAYBE the Lyonsi and Syn were pairing up, and I just THOUGHT it was fighting a couple days ago, but they both went off and made their own nest? And the Syn made hers under an ornament and she just doesn't even come out. Doesn't look like very effective mating rituals to me... It's all very odd.

 

[xraycer]

One time, one of my green severums dug under a piece of dw and next thing I knew, there were frys swimming around.

 

[ragin_cajun]

None of em have a tube hanging down. They're all just extremely cagey....and mad.