N Brichardi pair fighting

[Orion]

Last week I noticed that the male Brichardi was picking on the female and keeping her coraled at the top of the tank. For now I have the female seperated in the main tank. Other than some fin damage, she seams to be ok. She is eating very well, and carring her fins as usuall, and he body posture is normal. Her feces looks good. I do not see any signs of her being sick.

This was my thought as to why the male suddenly turned on her. I thought she was sick and he wanted to get rid of her. After seperating her, the male has carried on as usuall. He dosent seam interested in hurting any of the fry. All the water chemistry has remained consistant, feeding, lighting, filtration, nothing has changed that I can control. This has really got me stumped.

I do have a few other ideas:

I had been waiting for there second spawn witch to my knowledge never occured. Or if it did the eggs got ate. If she ate the eggs or something else ate them ( the only other animal in the tank are MTS) could that have sent the male in a fit and he blamed the female?

OR- The female ate the eggs due to the tank being overcrowded with fry from the first batch, and the male got mad. There are about 15 fry.

OR- Something else that I have compleatly over looked?

Any advise or sugestions or smacks on the head are welcome as I am compleatly bumfuzzeled on this.

 

[TaffyFish]

Well, whatever the cause, they might have divorced or they might just have been having a domestic! I remember my male turned on the female for a while until the female got really p@ssed off and chased him around the tank for a couple of days, with occasional lip-lock wrestling in between. Eventually they both calmed down. Various ages of fry in the meantime just kept out of the way ........ I did not separate them at any point because there were enough places in the rockwor to hide and rest, at least for 5-10 minutes anyway!

I'll never forget the time they were about to spawn in a tank with neo.leleupi in the caves next door. They absolutely hounded the female leleupi, as a pair they would search the tank high and low until they found her then chased and nipped her mercilessly. I had to provide her a small pot within a cave that she could hide in and be protected somewhat by the male. It was quite frightening how they would act in tandem to search her out, reminded me of those veloceraptors in Jurassic Park.

Back to your problem Orion, I guess I would let her recover condition then try re-introducing her to see if they can get over it. Maybe you could redecorate your rockwork to provide more hiding places, so they could co-exist out of each other's sight a little? Bit like marriage counselling eh?!

 

[Orion]

Marriage counselling, lol, I can only hope.

Thanks Taff, I had to tear down the rock work when removing the female, so stuff got moved. I dont know if it would be good enough or not. I am on the look out for a 29+gal at a cheap price, so if I run accross one I will grab it and put them in it. I should be getting a 20 long open up soon so I will most likely move them into there. I will just wait it out for now.

 

[Orion]

Brainfart- The act where one does not think in the normal thinking pattern, hence making bad and/or stupid thoughtless decisions, remarks, or otherwise makes themselves look like an idiot.

I sorta made a boo boo. When I sexed the pair, I actualy fliped floped them. Yes, thats right. I got them backwards. Sooo in reality, the male was the one who was getting picked on.

Once agian, anything I could do to help the situation, or even better resolve it

 

[FroggyFox]

hehe well at least you caught it are you blonde?? j/k lol How is HE doing?

 

[Orion]

Umm..actualy...yes. I am blonde.

BTW- I really do have a MALE betta. Really!

 

[TaffyFish]

I don't think the "brainfart" makes a whole lot of difference, the advice stands.

 

[Orion]

Well enough then TaffyFish, thanks.

I have opted for a tank divider as opposed to a Q tank for the male in the hope that the female might get used to him being around agian. I feel comfortable with this, just hope it works out for the best.