The Bill is now due. The beat goes on.

[FINWIN]

Mongo, brother hrp to Slade will likely follow his sibling in a blaze of glory. A lifetime of hyper aggression, breeding and fighting has now caught up to him as well and now he has "it." He was swimming and eating (and bullying) up until yesterday but not today. The familiar lips...I had been monitoring because he's always had a big mouth but you know the drill. So he's coming out. I will be putting syno Spot in the tub housing a few donation fish. The hrps have stripped him of skin within an inch of his life and he's thin. These demons with fins are something else. He didn't even look like this two weeks ago! Nothing like the beautiful golden syno I remember. We're talking about a full grown syno, folks...10 inches.

Mongo's history is similar to Slade's as a top tank boss. Unlike Slade he never connected with any of his offspring save Dusty, and that was brief. And despite his aggression he had a much harder time running the tank. Slade was more cooperative with adult offspring and they backed him up. Mongo is always on his own...once his sons got big enough to challenge it was a mixed bag of attack and getting attacked.

I just don't have space and resources to separate everybody. It's almost at the point where only the less aggressive 'heady' males will be the survivors. And that doesn't mean the dynamic won't shift again, either.

If any fishkeeper tells you all male tanks are 'calmer' without females I call horse++++ on that.

 

[FINWIN]

News coming in hot. One of Mongo's sons (not sure which yet) striped male he was tussling with the last few days with has "it" too, earlier stages. Catfish is a mess but I gotta go to work tomorrow and will deal with it when I get back.

Mongo is in a bucket with Furan 2. Have no expectations, just want to see if the med does anything. What's going to happen: tank will have all silk decor removed and stripped down. Things will be wide open so I can monitor with ease. Maybe just a couple of floor pieces previously in the 125. I added some java two days ago.

This is a bitter lesson for me. I will not do a same species male setup like this again. Separating the sexes has stopped the breeding but the males are destroying each other and succumbing to disease. Never expected or anticipated this. Meanwhile the females look fantastic and are thriving once the fighting stopped. In Lazarus mixed tank everyone is fine as well.

There's no logic anywhere either: the breeding fish in smaller tanks get along but the ones in larger tanks wreck each other. I don't get it.

But there are a couple of bright spots still. There appears to be some pinks with faded stripe pattern! These babies are descended from Slade. And Brutus, the monster of monster sons is even bigger...to my unofficial eye he looks to be 4 inches tall and around 8-9 inches long! I'll see if I can get a measurement at some point.

Meanwhile the grand queen of them all, Pip, is still living the high life. She is thick and stout and doing well in the 225 with BP Boss, syno Spot, and Red rainbow Salt. I'm guesstimating her at 5 inches now. Depending on mood she goes from gray/black stripes to deep blue/black stripes.

 

[phreeflow]

Sounds like a lot of drama. Hate the stress that comes with sick fish. Looks like they are coming down with columnaris….it’s hard to treat. Hope it settles down

 

[jjohnwm]

Sounds like a lot of drama. Hate the stress that comes with sick fish.

Yep...almost as bad as the sick fish that come with stress. Unfortunately, most cichlids are a PITA.

 

[FINWIN]

A PIA...and worse. Mongo was gone this morning. I stopped to check on him before heading to work. The adult striped son (haven't identified yet) is head standing in an effort to breathe. He'll likely be gone by Friday.

I've work to do tonight. The 125 will look vastly different. The log I've been soaking for months will go in. Java's in now. I have some flat boulders to do some hardscape with. At least I'll have an easier time monitoring any skirmishes with it being much more open. There are water lettuce floaters that are starting to take off.

I am now 0 and f+++ it against this problem.

For those of you who have dealt with this columnaris have you only had it with males? I haven't lost any female hrps to this despite the fact they were in the same tank and environment. I am convinced the endless liplocking males do leaves a pathway to body infection by bacteria/injury. Kind of like if you pull a chunk of skin off your body and walk around with no treatment exposed to all bacteria. I worked with a bike riding courier who had an accident and skinned his entire thigh. He returned to work with all his meat exposed. Was in the hospital for a week hanging on for dear life from infection and fever. Had to have multiple skin grafts.

Drain tonight and removal of any suspect fish. All silk decor will be trashed. It's gonna be a long night.

Said it before and I'll say it again...convicts couldn't possibly be worse than this bunch. Shanked bodies either floating or placed out front, torn lips never healing leading to other stuff and a ripped up full sized catfish.

 

[FINWIN]

Last update of the night.

Ok, the striped son of Mongo (I didn't bother to identify) rolled over ten minutes after I put him in a bucket (while I was working on the 125). He was still breathing but I had no desire to wake up to another floater so I just took him outside with his poppa.

Meanwhile the drama was just beginning. I kept hearing loud glug glug glug sounds. Bathroom toilet decided to leak all over the floor. Also discovered soil backflow in the tub. So now I call for emergency plumbing that won't get here until 8-10 AM. Turned off the water on the toilet and the one above it upstairs. Cleaned out the tub.

On the 125:

All suspicious fish were removed and are now outside. My tattered syno Cash doesn't appear to be in danger despite his ragged appearance. He's resting comfortably in a bucket with two large cylinder air stones. Clean water and quiet for now. I'll see if he wants to eat later.

top of the tank is open water now. may take out more stuff, haven't decided. Waiting on the fill up.

Complete clean of filters (debris, mulm, etc)

90% water change

all 'dirty' decorations removed

That's it for now. After I'm finished downstairs I've got a lil bit of wine left over (ICON) I'm gonna hit. I need it. Good night y'all. I'm DONE.

 

[esoxlucius]

I'm going to say something here FINWIN which I hope you don't take the wrong way.

After reading through your threads for the best part of 10 years now I'm come to realise that there is a startling pattern, which isn't just emerging, it seems to have been going on for ever!

Aquariums are meant to be peaceful things. You sit down and watch your fish after a stressful day with a beverage of your choice and just unwind. They are about as far away from the hustle and bustle of everyday life as you can imagine, or at least that is the perception of them.

But every single set up you seem to have had over the years as been nothing short of complete madness! You even coined the term "goon city" for one of your tanks because of the constant drama you reported on a daily basis.

And low and behold, there's an unsurprising link to them....cichlids!! The drama queens of fish!

Are you not tempted in any way, shape or form, for your own sanity, to have a complete about turn and maybe change things up. Have a complete revamp of your set ups?

We all like a new challenge, a new direction. I've recently done exactly that, getting rid of all my tropical fish and turning my 360 into a cold water European perch tank. Maybe it's time for a new chapter in your book?

 

[jjohnwm]

Yes! This ^, exactly!

Those psychopathic fish are not falling prey to diseases because of the physical damage they do to one another; it's because they are all completely nuts, and live in the equivalent of the exercise yard in a maximum security prison with all the "lifers". They spend all their time whacking and bonking and smacking and whatever-else-ing each other, and the constant unrelenting pressure and stress is wearing on them. I don't care how big a tank you put them in; it's still nowhere near a wild environment, where there is almost unlimited room for the weaker to run from and avoid the stronger.

This pressure is shortening their miserable aggressive lives, and it can't be doing anything good for your health either. Hell, I read one of your posts about Goon City and I can feel my blood pressure rising. I wonder "Why does she put up with this s**t? Why is she doing this to herself?"

I haven't had one of these ThunderDome-style tanks for many years, and I sure don't miss 'em. Like Esox says, I keep tanks for the relaxation they provide, not because I need more stress in my life.

 

[FINWIN]

I think I joined MFK in 2018 so (counts on fingers) that's 7? years.
@ esoxlucius
I'm not offended at all! Believe me I almost wish I had goldfish at this point. I had been out of fishkeeping for awhile and got excited at the idea of something different than the usual fish I kept in the past (guppies, tetras, goldfish, etc). Read up about cichlids and lurked here for a whole year before joining. My original plan was 2 tanks and 1 hospital tank. What did I know? Right now I have 5 (down from 7 at one point). It will be 4 one the donation fish are out. I never planned to separate my "boxing blood parrots" either.

This situation became a runaway train

Yes! This ^, exactly!

Those psychopathic fish are not falling prey to diseases because of the physical damage they do to one another; it's because they are all completely nuts, and live in the equivalent of the exercise yard in a maximum security prison with all the "lifers". They spend all their time whacking and bonking and smacking and whatever-else-ing each other, and the constant unrelenting pressure and stress is wearing on them. I don't care how big a tank you put them in; it's still nowhere near a wild environment, where there is almost unlimited room for the weaker to run from and avoid the stronger.

This pressure is shortening their miserable aggressive lives, and it can't be doing anything good for your health either. Hell, I read one of your posts about Goon City and I can feel my blood pressure rising. I wonder "Why does she put up with this s**t? Why is she doing this to herself?"

I haven't had one of these ThunderDome-style tanks for many years, and I sure don't miss 'em. Like Esox says, I keep tanks for the relaxation they provide, not because I need more stress in my life.

. The breeding is what did it. Once the hrps got going it was follow the bouncing tanks. I still have fish to donate but at least its confined to one tank now. The all female tank has settled once hierarchy got established. No issues there at all.

On that note my experience has been the females (hrps) have a stable hierarchy once established but with males it constantly shifts. No male is top boss all the time.

The only future cichlids on the plate is another O (for the 225). That tank is stable with only 4 fish, none of which will give an adult oscar problems. I still miss that big lug, Brick. He would greet me when I came down the stairs going to work.

I want a chocolate for the cube tank project down the road. That's it. I want to make that a lightly stocked oddball tank. Once that firms up suggestions for compatible fish for chocolates will be welcome.

Having been through this 'trial by fire' there's definitely things I will do different. and I work full time so the nonsense needs to stop

 

[jjohnwm]

...I almost wish I had goldfish at this point....

I am able to overlook that condescending comment only because my fish tanks...unlike yours...keep me mellow, relaxed and resilient to insults.

Ommmmmm.....