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Constantly losing Demasoni

2384 Views 24 Replies 12 Participants Last post by  Cromak, 
C
I don't understand what is going on. I have now lost the 2nd Demasoni in a matter of 3 days.

In the past i have had this same problem. They always seem to die.

Here is my current stock

6 yellow labs
4 red zebras
12 demasoni

Do you think the issue is not enough demasoni?

I just don't understand why these things always die.

Any help would be appreciated.
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N
agression? What behaviour do you see?
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C
When I see them during the day they are fine, most are next to rocks or plants i don't see much aggression at all. When i wake up in the morning and turn on the light is when i have found these two dead at the bottom.
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CichMomma
Cromak said:
When I see them during the day they are fine, most are next to rocks or plants i don't see much aggression at all. When i wake up in the morning and turn on the light is when i have found these two dead at the bottom.
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I'm sorry this is happening. I don't have an answer but just wanted to reply in sympathy/empathy because the same thing is happening to my Saulosi. I just can't figure it out. :(
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M
I don't know what is happening but the same thing happened to me twice. I ordered 15 each time and after about two weeks 1 by 1 would die for no reason when the other fish weren't dying.I thought I was never going to buy demasoni again but when I went to lfs there was 2 so I picked them and they grew up fine for whatever reason and now they're a pair.
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C
Interesting, i don't get it either :(

I have heard that you will have a dominant male that will slowly kill 1 by 1 i wonder if that is what's happening? Maybe i need to get 20 demasoni? not sure that will make much of a difference but if this keeps happening i may just get rid of the demasoni all together and add 2 other species in there with my labs/zebras.

Good to hear others are having this issue or have had this issue and its not just me. My water is perfect and all the fish look very healthy including the demasoni.
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Skallekaj
I had problem with mine -

Some started resting alot "lying" on the bottom/rocks - they looked a biy skinny also. I found out they had some trouble getting at the food and getting it down in a haste before getting robbed of the more dominant species. I lost 1 before I got the food adjusted. I fed 2-3 small potions earlier now I give em food once a day, tuned up the smaller pieces, and they seem to benefit from it.
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C
good point maybe that is some of my problem. I do notice that 2 of them at least hide when i feed and dont seem to get any food.. Could be part of the problem. I will keep an eye on that, thanks.
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D
Ammonia/nitrite/nitrate/pH readings?

EDIT: Tank size? Fish size? m:f ratio?
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C
I dont have the water readings but i know they are good, water levels have been perfect last time i checked. All the first look very healthy, are very active, eat, swim constantly etc..

Tank is 55g, they are all juvie about 1" not sure on m:f ratio, hard to sex them so young. I just got a large group of 12.
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GTZ
It's after lights out that things tend to get interesting. Spend half an hour watching them after the lights go out, preferably without them knowing you're there, watch for anyone hiding behind filter intakes/heaters, or just plain outright aggression.
What's the size and dimensions of your tank? Also, do you have a water test kit? Post results.
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G
dielikemoviestars said:
Ammonia/nitrite/nitrate/pH readings?
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I was wondering the same thing.

I would check all of them again to make sure.
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C
GTZ said:
It's after lights out that things tend to get interesting. Spend half an hour watching them after the lights go out, preferably without them knowing you're there, watch for anyone hiding behind filter intakes/heaters, or just plain outright aggression.
What's the size and dimensions of your tank? Also, do you have a water test kit? Post results.
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I have two that are actually hiding.. one is way up underneath the HOB water flow and the other is behind the heater. The rest of them are pretty much out in the open. Does that indicate the others are aggressive towards these two?

Tank is just a 55g 48x20

Here are the readings from the PH strips I have. Ill try to be as close as possible.

Nitrate - 18
Nitrite - 0
GH - 150
Chlorine - 0
KH - 120
PH - 7.8

I actually dont have an Ammonia test strip on hand.. But i would assume its ok if all the other fish are fine. It seems only the Demasoni are the fish that i have ever had die. *** had tons of other fish in here. Peacocks,haps etc but now am down to just the 3 species.

heres the tank
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G
Well you definitly want nitrates but 18 is pretty specific. 10-20 ppm is a good range so yeah thats good.

You didn't give ammonia readings but if your nitrate is 18ppm and your nitrite is zero your ammonia is probably zero.

P.H. is good.

The API master kit is a great test kit if you wanted to move from test strips.
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D
Yes, that means the 2 that are hiding are victims of aggression. They'll probably be your next dead. Looks like your colony is weeding itself out and, unfortunately, there aren't enough fish to spread the aggression.
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Kanorin
Cromak said:
I don't understand what is going on. I have now lost the 2nd Demasoni in a matter of 3 days.
In the past i have had this same problem. They always seem to die.
Here is my current stock

6 yellow labs
4 red zebras
12 demasoni

Do you think the issue is not enough demasoni?
I just don't understand why these things always die.
Any help would be appreciated.
Click to expand...
From my understanding, this is pretty common with Demasoni. The victim fish are usually subdominant males which are receiving extra aggression because the colony is too male-heavy. It's best to remove these fish as soon as you notice them hiding and (ideally) trade back to the petstore in exchange for more females.

One other trick which *might* help a little bit is to rearrange your rockwork and also to get more rocks and create more caves.
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C
so you think i need to double the amount of demasoni i have or just let it weed itself out and after these two that are hiding go away see if any of the others start to hide? If they do, i would assume i need to get more.
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C
Kanorin said:
Cromak said:
I don't understand what is going on. I have now lost the 2nd Demasoni in a matter of 3 days.
In the past i have had this same problem. They always seem to die.
Here is my current stock

6 yellow labs
4 red zebras
12 demasoni

Do you think the issue is not enough demasoni?
I just don't understand why these things always die.
Any help would be appreciated.
Click to expand...
From my understanding, this is pretty common with Demasoni. The victim fish are usually subdominant males which are receiving extra aggression because the colony is too male-heavy. It's best to remove these fish as soon as you notice them hiding and (ideally) trade back to the petstore in exchange for more females.

One other trick which *might* help a little bit is to rearrange your rockwork and also to get more rocks and create more caves.
Click to expand...
They are so small its hard for my LFS to sex them.. I may just have to let it weed itself out and just build from there. What do you think?
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DJRansome
dielikemoviestars said:
Yes, that means the 2 that are hiding are victims of aggression. They'll probably be your next dead. Looks like your colony is weeding itself out and, unfortunately, there aren't enough fish to spread the aggression.
Click to expand...
I agree with part of this, but not the other part. :)

Agree the 2 hiding are victim fish. They may need to be removed to a hospital tank, allowed to recover and be passed along to your LFS or another hobbyist. If they are left in the tank they will (a) get sick, and/or (b) be killed.

They are probably just excess males. The dominant males will drive off sub-dominant males continuously until they are satisfied with the male:female ratio in the tank IME.

If you remove them before they get sick, everything should be fine.

However, since this has been happening for a while and you have had deaths, I will suspect that somewhere along the way one of the victim fish actually became overcome by the bloat organism and infected the tank.

So in your place I would treat the tank for bloat with metronidazole.

What works for me is to keep removing those dominant males and keep adding females until you reach a balance.
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jaymore1
My guess is u have a male killing other males which is just something that happens with demasoni.I actually have a friend who had 15 in his 125g for 3yrs and all of sudden fish started coming up dead and before u know it the dominate male was the only demasoni still alive.So it just goes to show u with this species anything can happen,thats why i only keep 1 in my group of mbuna because they seem to only attack their own.Hopefully what happend to my buddy does not happen to u. GOODLUCK
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