What to do with Unpaired Fish?

[Abbeys_Mom]

What do you do when you have 3 or more of the same fish and 2 pair off. What do you do?

[BigMac]

I dont do anyhitng if I'm not breeding the paired off fish. If I were breeding I would move the breeding pair to a tank set up for breeding.

You could propobably take the odd man out to the LFS if it is getting beat up.

[Northernguy]

What do you do when you have 3 or more of the same fish and 2 pair off. What do you do?

Either get another tank and another partner for it or see if the lfs is interested!
Do you have a friend with tanks that may want it?

[Wild Turkey]

Yup, good advice ^:19:

[Lady Hobbs]

Tear your darned hair out! I bet you are talking about those firemouths now, aren't you. I'm right where you are with 7 younger ones moved into another tank and searching each day to make sure my existing adults have laid no eggs!

I'm thinking of putting all my females in together and my males together........if I can ever figure out which is which.

[Abbeys_Mom]

In my 55g I have 4 Firemouths. So far I have sexed them as 3 Males, 1 Female. The female and the middle sized male have paired off, but not bred. So far the largest male (who was paired, but his mate died) is holding his own. The smallest male is having a rough time as he is getting chased by both the large male and the pair. The stupid fish won't move his territory farther away. They all hang out at the same end of the tank and have their territories in 1/4 of the tank (the Severum owns the rest).

Plus, Yesterday I bought a male Kribensis (because for some stupid reason I thought the one I had already was female). Anyway, turns out the one I had was male, now I have 2 male in a 27g. They haven't killed each other, but they are certainly not getting along. I don't know what sex the albino krib is, but seems like it might be male too. Rotten luck. Petsmart won't take the male krib back, so I am not sure how I am going to fix this.

[Northernguy]

I would call pet smart and tell them you asked for a female and not a male.

[Lady Hobbs]

OH MY GAWD!!!!

I just checked and my little female has once again got a pile of squiggling babies. I cleaned their tank just last night and didn't see them inside of her cave. Heck, I wouldn't care if they had 2 or 3 but they have 300-400 hundred!

Liz, I keep my tank separated pretty much with plants, wood all piled up in the middle with caves on both ends. I also have piles of rocks all over in the tank and pvc pipe for hiding places.

I also find it to my my worse tank for cleaning and getting dirty the fastest due to all the stuff in the tank. One nice thing is they generally aren't fish that kill each other but just chase the heck out of one another.

I think if I send you a couple hundred your problems will be solved????????

[Lady Hobbs]

And back again to tell you that my other tank has swimmers, too! Out comes the gravel vac! It's good for more than water changes. :)

Why don't you get rid of your male if you don't want babies? Boy, these guys start early. The second group I found today come from a pair barely 4 months old.

[Abbeys_Mom]

I am sure the pair I have has been laying eggs, but the BN pleco has been eating them. The Severum has been raiding their little cave too. If they did breed, I know the LFS would take them, but they still have a dozen from the same batch as mine (and I got mine in July). The Petsmart near us is awful when it comes to fish. I KNOW I can't take the male Krib back, they won't take anything back unless it's dead. When I accidently got 2 Severums (thought I was buying convicts), they got really p*ssed off when I brought one back alive. I guess I was supposed to wait until the other severum ate it. The only thing I can think to do about the kribs it wait a bit and buy some females. Hey, it's always good to have a reason to buy fish, lol.

[Lady Hobbs]

I wonder how your 3 males would do together without the female in the tank? I was tempted to try it tonight but I would have to take everything out of the tank to catch them. (grrrrrr) Maybe she could go in the smaller tank with the kribs. Perhaps removing the female the males would have nothing to fight over.

I vacuumed up about 500 babies! Probably missed a few!

[Abbeys_Mom]

They mainly fight over territory. I have mess up the tank and moved thing, but nothing help. If this was an above view of the tank, these would be the territories.

_________________________Back________________________________

--------- 23

1

-----------4
_________________________Front________________________________

1. would be the largest male
2. and 3. are the pair
4. Is the small male who hangs out at the glass.

The Biggest male will explore the whole tank, but the others all stay in the corner protecting their territories.

[Northernguy]

LOL Congrats on the fry Lady Hobbs!:19: Did you want them?

Abbey's Mom ,It sounds like you need another tank!

[Adrian]

Unless I am breeding for specifics, I don't usually mess with my tank unless of course one is being picked on relentlessly. I generally try to have many different hiding places and tons of plants for my fish to hide/swim in.

[Demi ^_^]

When I had all 5 of my Angels, I had 2 pairs and 1 outcast (Which happened to be the largest, Blaze) So, I took him back to the LFS and now the Angels are all happy ;)

[Lady Hobbs]

LOL Congrats on the fry Lady Hobbs!:19: Did you want them?

Abbey's Mom ,It sounds like you need another tank!

Absolutely I did not much less 600 or 700 hundred. I sucked them out with my gravel vac.

[Wild Turkey]

Absolutely I did not much less 600 or 700 hundred. I sucked them out with my gravel vac.

Ive had to do that to fry as well, put the bucket outside overnight so i didnt have to put it in my fridge, dont think the girly would like that too much.

[Northernguy]

:11: Poor Fry!
I guess you gotta do that! It beats needing a new tank all the time,I guess!