# Killer Fish



## fishscale (Jul 25, 2007)

Is it normal for a fish to slowly transform into a vicious killer? I've had a female apisto for almost a year now, and I just had to isolate her. Her first mate never spawned, just turned up dead one day. I got the two of them together when they were younger. I chalked it up to bad luck. Fast forward 8 months. I got her another companion, who she seemed to like. They spawned maybe 4 or 5 times, got a couple batches of fry from them. However, she became territorial and aggressive during the spawns, at first just towards the dither fish in the aquarium (CPDs and Embers), not the mate. No fatalities, just some nips when they got too close to the cave. Now, about 3 months after their first spawn, I've had a string of deaths this week. First, I watched the female peck at the young SAE I was holding for another tank while it was acclimating. It disappeared. Then, a CPD and a pygmy cory turned up dead. 2 days ago, she started showing her colors again, and this time, was intolerant of the male. This morning, he turned up dead, too. I watched her tear a chunk out of one of the embers, and I'm not sure he's gonna make it. I've put her in the QT tank for now. I would have thought the problems would have shown up by now. Is this normal? There is still a brood of juveniles in the tank, but they are large enough not to get eaten by the other fish, and I'm pretty sure she was done protecting them.


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## JanS (Apr 14, 2004)

Hmm, Cichlids are Cichlids, but Apisto's usually aren't that bad. I would remove the female from the tank to make sure there isn't something else going on that isn't glaringly apparent.


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## ingg (Apr 8, 2007)

What size tank and what species of Apisto?

There are some pretty broad dfferences - Panduros, for example, are downright buggers when spawning, Aggassizzi females are known to kill undesirable and pesky males.... 

Tank size makes a ton of difference, too. When the male can't get out fo the way of a bumblebee colored female....


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## jaidexl (Jan 20, 2007)

Sounds normal to me. I have an A. sp 'Masken' that bites large fish, is fast enough to catch and nip fleeing tetras, and rips the heads of Malaysian trumpet snails. :fear:


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## tranr (May 20, 2009)

As Ingg brought up, I am curious about the size of your aquarium. I think smaller spaces can potentially bring out more aggression in fish. I don't have any experiences with apistos, but I wouldn't be surprised if you had purchased a juvenile fish (less aggressive) that matured into a territorial fish.


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## fishorama (Apr 18, 2009)

I have a. cacatuoides I got as 1/2 inch fry. After a couple months growing in a 10g 1 male died & another was beaten up. I thought it was the males fighting but that at 3/4 in. they were to small too breed. Wrong! As soon as I moved them to a larger tank both females had fry. All 3 males were kept far away. Luckily it was a 55g so they could get away.

I would not keep a pair in less than a 20 long. I didn't get around to dither fish but they'd need to aware of these tough girls & stay out of range.


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