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Oh no...I'm a monster! Any advice?

2K views 12 replies 5 participants last post by  iamntbatman 
#1 ·
So I feel completely terrible about this. I went to the LFS and picked up a male crowntail betta and some feeder guppies. I want to start breeding the guppies in a 10g tank I have set up for them. I had a small tank with one male, two female fancy guppies that I also wanted to move into the guppy breeding tank.

I figured I would quarantine the feeders in their new tank for a week or two before adding the fancy guppies, but I also had to move the fancy guppies out of their small tank because I had to make room for the betta. So, I moved the fancy guppies into my 29g community and went about acclimating the other fish and whatnot.

The guppies seemed fine at first, but then to my horror I looked over and watch my male kribensis lunge at the male guppy, grab him by the tail and start mauling him. I banged on the glass to scare the krib off and netted the male guppy. He's in the hospital tank now but I feel really bad for him. His tail fin is almost completely gone and it looks like he has a little damage to his body. He's just treading water at the surface of the tank. I'm medicating with Melafix and some Pimafix as a preventative. Is there anything else I can do for the little guy? I had housed these two fish together with no problems before, so I don't understand the sudden aggression.
 
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#2 ·
ohhh how awful,
you've done the right thing with the guppy,and fingers crossed he'll
pull through.
tell me more about the krib.................
does he have a mate.......are they showing breeding behaviour ?
 
#3 ·
The krib may have inflicted internal damage beyond what medications can help with. Were it me I might consider euthanizing the fish. :( when I was much younger I purchased a juvenile jack dempsey and a juvenile oscar. I kept them both in the same tank for approx two years. They shared the same clay pot to rest in and by all accounts got along well with each other. One day upon arriving home from school I discovered the oscar dead in the tank literally torn to bits with both eyes gone. Fish never cease to surprise us.
 
#4 ·
The krib is half of a mated pair, but as I don't want them doing any mating at the moment his much more aggressive wife is in a different tank.

I don't think the guppy has any internal injuries, or I would at least be surprised if he did. The krib really only got at his tail end. There are a few missing scales near the end of the tail and the fin is torn to shreds, but that's just about all the damage I can see. I hope he pulls through!
 
#7 ·
As the day wore on, he eventually lost the ability to keep himself horizontal and hung nose-down from the surface. Later on he lost buoyancy and nose-dived into the gravel and mostly was letting the current carry him around. Eventually his movements were getting more and more uneven, even his gills, so I decided to euthanize him. Poor little guy.

I don't know what's gotten into my krib. He's normally pretty docile. Since he mauled the guppy, he's decided to become more territorial about his cave and has been chasing the ram away whenever it gets near the cave entrance. And they used to be buddies...
 
#9 ·
He seems to have calmed down a lot today. Maybe he was just having one of those days. Too bad he had to take it out on my poor guppy...

Well, I've still got the feeders on the Melafix/Pimafix regimen because of their fin rot, and I'll probably wait a week after that's over just to make sure they're healthy, then I'll add the two chubby fancy females to that tank and probably get another male fancy guppy as well.
 
#13 ·
Well, I had to euthanize the mauled male guppy that night as he was definitely suffering and wouldn't have made it through the night. The two fat female fancy guppies are still in the 29g community and doing just fine. I don't know why the krib singled out the male like that, as one of the females is just as brightly colored as the male was.

The feeder guppies in the 10g tank are almost clear of fin rot and have even started popping out some fry, so I might get a new male fancy guppy and move the two females into that tank next week. I can probably think of a few other things (a school of black neons for the 29g, perhaps?) that I could pick up while I'm there.
 
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