bolivianbaby

My poor baby girl! Her and her husband, Kahn got into it pretty good. I think she ate the fry-AGAIN! She's got torn fins and has taken a few good hits to her side. I have her in a separate 29g tank to allow her to heal and give them some time apart. He doesn't have a mark on him. I think she lost. He had her pinned in a small area of the tank for awhile as well. I'd like to be angry with him, but I know it's the nature of the beast, so I really can't.

Garlic, Vita-Chem, Stress-Coat, is there anything else I can do for her to help her heal? She's pretty special to me. She was my very first convict. The 29g I moved her to is cycled, 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, 5 nitrates.

Shawnie

you are doing all you can and its all great with prestine water added (as you know aquaqeen!)
poor girl.....
be preparred that he may not tolerate her after being without her and she may need to divorce him and find a new man!!!!!!
when and if you add a new man or even kahn , add them to her tank where she is boss.....

bolivianbaby

Thanks, Shawnie. He's never gotten this rough with her, so I'm going to get her feeling 100% and then I may put him in another tank, maybe with the JD's and pair her off with someone new or maybe another fem. The most important thing is making sure I'm doing everything I can to get her feeling better. I guess it's all for the best. She's popped out about a spawn a month for the past few months, so she needs a break anyways.

I'm not going to rush anything. I've got plenty of convict fry and more on the way, so I may just give her a few months off and then figure it out. Thanks again and Happy New Year!

Shawnie

You always do best for your fin babies and human kind!!!!!! dont ever doubt that
Happy New Year to you and princess as welll.....

Tony G.

Oh no!!! You´re doing all you can! poor girl, what a bad hubby LOL



Hope she gets better soon!

bolivianbaby

Thanks, Tony

It's good to see you back! We've missed you around here.

redlessi

BB I know with you taking care of her, she will be good.

Tony glad to see you back, I missed you.

harpua2002

Poor girl! Sorry her mate is being... *ahem*.
You know what to do and you'll get it figured out. Clean water, low stress, and high quality food and she'll be on the mend before you know it.

bolivianbaby

Thanks everyone for your support.

We have an interesting update: Kahn didn't eat this morning. I dropped the pellets right in front of him. He just looked at them and swam away. He was not moved to another tank, only her, which leads me to believe there is a bond between them. I'm going to give him another few days before I start getting concerned since fish can go without food for a few days.

I won't jeopardize Karma's recovery or well-being by putting her back in the tank so I'm going to treat him with Vita-Chem, stress-coat, and garlic as well. He's obviously stressed, so I'm hoping this will help. Eventually, I may pair him off with another female, maybe one with a little more ability to defend herself against his "tantrums". Either that or he can remain single. I haven't decided yet and really don't need to make a decision anytime soon.

ccb04

bb ... I recently had similar issues after my girl Bonnie ate the 2nd batch of fry. My pink male Clyde tore into her pretty good ... and I seperated them so she could heal up. Several subsequent attempts to reunite the two using various methods, were unsuccessful.

Despite my love of these beautiful fish ... I decided they weren't for me. The breeding wasn't a problem and I had a grow out tank and place to take the fry. The fact that there will always be the potential for mated pairs becoming 'un-mated' is what made me reconsider keeping them.

Thus, I'm in the process of setting up what will likely be a new 29g community for 1 Bolivian, 1 Keyhole, and 3 platies.

bolivianbaby

They are stinkers for sure. I'm sorry they didn't work out for you However, your new stocking sounds beautiful! I think I'm lucky in the convict department. I have close to 16 adults at the moment that I can use for "swapping purposes".

Karma is having a blast and showing her normal happy coloration. She has a 29g all to herself. Kahn's still upset. He's eating, but he spends a lot of his time swimming around and it seems like he's looking for her.

ccb04

Yeah, bb ... they're stinkers (atleast Clyde, lol). I really liked them alot, though. I'm bummed about the situation and felt I had a really good pair. Clyde was perfectly pink, growing like mad, and had beautiful flowing finnage with his dorsal prominantly trimmed in light blue. Bonnie was also pretty good size and her colors ... particularly in breeding mode, were fantastic.

But boy, not only did Clyde tear into her pretty good on the 1st go around prior to her removal ... but after removal and upon subsequent attempts to reunite them, it only got worse. I was hopeful, as initially it looked as though Clyde was super happy and they appeared to be courting right away. But that quickly changed into Clyde cornering her everywhere she went and laying into her.

I hope the new stocking goes well and brings me the initial joys Bonnie and Clyde did. The platies should be OK with a single bolivian and a single Keyhole, correct? I would like to get males for all the fish mentioned.

bolivianbaby

Yeah, they should be fine.

I have two bolivian rams with platys and they do great! I've never had a keyhole, but they're known as one of the more peaceful cichlids.

I'm hoping to figure out a way to add a keyhole to my tanks I'm setting up in the spring. They're beautiful fish.

ccb04

I figured they should be OK.

As far as the Keyhole goes ... from all of the reading/research I've done, they're about the least aggressive of most any Cichlid. I considered a rainbow cichlid as well ... but like the Keyhole more and feel it would be a better choice given the stock I'm looking at and the fact that the Keyhole would be the biggest fish in the tank.

bolivianbaby

Please post pics when you get this tank stocked. I'd LOVE to see it!

ccb04

bb, I'll post pics.

Do you think I should go with the 29g ... or just use the 20g long the Cons were in? The 29g I'd have to purchase new, but I can use the same hood from the 20g long (which I previously modified to fit 2 filters being that I normally like to run dual filters on most tanks).

bolivianbaby

This is totally my opinion and not based on fact, but I truly thing they'd be happier in the 29g. The footprint is the same, but the 29g is taller. That will also provide "escape room" for the platys if the bolivian and keyhole get cranky. I've learned never to underestimate the moodiness of cichlids and bolivians and keyholes definitely qualify as cichlids.

Love the dual filters. It's a life saver during MTS or if one filter breaks.

ccb04

Thanks, bb.

I was kinda thinking along the same lines with the 29g being 6" taller than the 20g long (18" vs. 12"). It seems many Cichlids often like to hang roam in the middle to lower regions of a given tank. Additionally, a 9g increase in water volume would only help in maintaining proper water quality.

Yeah, I really like the idea of two filters. I had two on the cons 20g long setup. One was an AquaClear 50 and the other was an Aqua-Tech 5-15, giving me 300 GPH total. Being that I can use that same hood on a 29g ... I am definitely thinking that's the route I should go.