Golden Wonder Killies

[The-Raven]

I had three killies at first, one of them died when he tried to eat a ghost shrimp that was a little too big for him, the other died from ammonia poisoning from my cycling process... which left one guy all alone. They seemed to get along fine when the three of them were together...

Any way, I decided not to add any companions for him until my cycling was complete (the nitrite levels are coming down now - ammonia is at zero) so I figured I'd buy two killies to keep him company.

Well, one of the killies I bought just looks horrible, and I doubt he'll make it - He looked fine at the store, but after a day in my tank his tail is almost nothing. The other killie I added appears fine, the only problem is that my original killie seems to boss him around into staying behind the filter, and only behind the filter. If he so much as pokes his head out my original killie will come flying over and put a stop to that real quick. The original doesn't seem to bother the ragged-tail one, who mostly stays near the bottom and looks in horrible shape.

My question is, why is my original killie acting so territorial to these new additions, when he seemed to enjoy the company before? The strange thing is, the original was the little guy of the original trio... now he acts like he's the big man on campus, but he's no bigger than the new guys.

If it's going to be a problem, I'll just take the new guys back and leave this killie by himself, he seems to enjoy it that way anyway - his coloring was amazing as soon as he was the only one left out of the original group.... now his colors are still bright, but he's really dark (which I know is a sign of aggression)

 

[sylvia]

Re-arange the tank a bit so he thinks he's in new territory and that should solve your problem. Then don't add any more fish until your tank is fully cycled - in other words you should have 0 ammonia, 0 nitrIte and a reading under 20ppm (do water changes if it isn't under 20) for nitrAtes. By adding fish at this stage when only ammonia has just gone down, you are just causing problems for the fish, stressing them out and this is probably also the reason the third killie doesn't look well. I suspect this is finrot so get some medications and start treating. If the fin is just damaged from being nipped but not infected, extra clean water should be enough for it to heal - but your current water quality isn't good so it's essential to keep doing regular, small, partial water changes until your tank is fully cycled so the nitrIte spike that is coming won't kill this killie. It may be a good idea to just return the last 2 killies you added and stick to the lone one - at least until your tank is fully cycled.

 

[BigC]

Killifish males for the most part do not tolerate each other very well when there is only a few of them in a tank together. Any amount of moving decor and this and that will not solve your problem. The problem lies in that you have all males. Nice though they are I would suggest that you get rid of two of the males and replace them with females. The male will then be occupied with trying to mate with the females rather than show territorial aggression. I say two females because he can be very persistant when it comes to breeding and while he's chasing one female then the other is a least getting a chance to rest.

 

[The-Raven]

I took them back today after reading the male territory thing. I didn't spot any females in the sell-tank, so I guess he'll just be a bachelor for now