Well, he finally got caught in the act. For the past week I'd been wondering why the top lobe of my cories' tails and their dorsal fins were looking a bit ragged. The blue danios were definately more ragged then usual as well. At first I thought, oh crap, fin rot, but it didn't have the same MO as fin rot. The fish were otherwise healthy and eating normally, as well as the stuff not seeming to spread to other fish. I put in a palmful of salt and sat to wait.
Well, today, while gravel vaccing and water changing, I was observing my tank closely and caught the dirty rat. My baby convict, that had grown the size of a quarter this past year he's been in residance, stalked one of the cories, then viciously chewed the poor cory's tail! I knew this particular convict was gaining attitude when it bit me, but to terrorize poor innocent cories!! This is a big no-no in my tank!
I knew this day would eventually come. The sweet, pinky-finger nail sized fry I adopted all that long ago was just trouble waiting to happen. He grew up and turned rebellious as all SA cichlids do. Tankmates that he would run from he was now bullying. Mr. Convict had to go to the LFS. They were very nice about adopting him , although rather suprised he was only the size he was for a year old. But then again, growing up in a crowded 20 gallon tank doesn't give one much room to flesh out. But he was happy and healthy, so they put him in with similar sized convicts so he can learn what it is like to be a convict cichlid.
There are still two more little tiny convicts in residence in my 20 gallon. I'm waiting now to see who the next big bully is going to be.
~~Colesea
Well, today, while gravel vaccing and water changing, I was observing my tank closely and caught the dirty rat. My baby convict, that had grown the size of a quarter this past year he's been in residance, stalked one of the cories, then viciously chewed the poor cory's tail! I knew this particular convict was gaining attitude when it bit me, but to terrorize poor innocent cories!! This is a big no-no in my tank!
I knew this day would eventually come. The sweet, pinky-finger nail sized fry I adopted all that long ago was just trouble waiting to happen. He grew up and turned rebellious as all SA cichlids do. Tankmates that he would run from he was now bullying. Mr. Convict had to go to the LFS. They were very nice about adopting him , although rather suprised he was only the size he was for a year old. But then again, growing up in a crowded 20 gallon tank doesn't give one much room to flesh out. But he was happy and healthy, so they put him in with similar sized convicts so he can learn what it is like to be a convict cichlid.
There are still two more little tiny convicts in residence in my 20 gallon. I'm waiting now to see who the next big bully is going to be.
~~Colesea
