Calling All Golden Wonder Pair Owners

[N0body Of The Goat]

I'm really sad to report that I found the smallest female (~4.5cm SL) of this hareem dead last night, in the area of the Rio where I've seen killifish romance over the last week...

She had no visible signs of illness, a possible tiny indent by a pectoral fin.

I'm currently thinking it was either spawning stress (which is the reason I went for three females and one male, to try and give the ladies some respite), or she wandered into the Lionhead pair's territory situated in the back-right of the tank (the killi "spawning" area has been the front-right quarter), or she was bullied by those vicious Barilius canarensis/sp.2 bakeris.

Have any mixed sex keepers had this "spawn stress death" scenario happen, when keeping th male permanently with the female(s)?

 

[Biulu]

No, I have not had this problem even though keeping only 1 pair of golden wonders. Are you sure it was a female though? I have had my alpha male bullying another smaller male to death...

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

The colouring of the three besides my definite male is very bland, not to mention their bellies were slightly plump, suggesting they were female. My vibrantly coloured male has been harrassing the females for about a week now, always getting on the side of them that stops them from getting away from the heavily planted quiet corner of the tank, where they appear to do spawning "shivers."

Unfortunately, this is right next to where a pair of my Lionheads have paired up, with the female hiding most of the time at the bottom of the Juwel chamber! I'm now presuming she is guarding eggs, as she has easily ome out for brief spells in last day or two. I'm wondering if the male Lionhead perhaps landed a few blows that either killed her outright or induced death through stress.

Another possibility is that the red-finned Barilius have attacked her, as they have been very fiesty of late and I cannot wait to get the Barilius away from the more placid fish like the Humpheads; baby Ctenopoma; these young Golden Wonder ... into the 5x2x2 this weekend (the Powersafe electric kit and polystyrene tiles arrived today, so now just need to move the tank and cabinet next to the window in the garage for natural temporary lighting).