tootie Posted January 6, 2009 Share Posted January 6, 2009 Had 13 , now 12 P BN fry (about 3-4cms) in 2 ft tank. Didn't seem to have any probs, however added 4 compresseps (3cms) and a couple of aulonocara peacocks mainly due to shortage in space and because the tank looked bare. Have found 1 fish dead which had been bitten. Also have noticed that there are several others who have got bitten fins. Unsure who the bully is or are - have only seen the P BN 'chasing' each over food. Perhaps they bully each other - is this the case? My guess is that it is more likely to be the larger fish therefore think I would be best to move them. Have 2 options move peacocks only or both compresseps and peacocks - what would be best? Also would I be better adding a larger peace of driftwood for hiding- atm have medium size driftwood and a couple of cave rocks in there? Is there anything I can do to help the repair of the fish's fins? Am i best to leave these fish on there own or is there some other fish I could add that wouldn't cause any probs - idea is to grow them to a size where I can eventually breed them. Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks, Tootie. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boots n all Posted January 6, 2009 Share Posted January 6, 2009 At 12 Peppermints you had a lot of fish in the tank, what sort of filter are you running? You different need hiding places for you peps, wood is good as they will munch on it a bit, pipes that are small enough for them to get into...and long enough for their taisl not to be left out Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eddie Salita Posted January 7, 2009 Share Posted January 7, 2009 Are you talking about dimi comps or alto comps? If dimi's I would say they are the culprits. cheers, Jason Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tootie Posted January 7, 2009 Author Share Posted January 7, 2009 Are you talking about dimi comps or alto comps? If dimi's I would say they are the culprits. cheers, Jason Was talking about alto comps. Have moved them out leaving the P BN on their own. THey are all fry so they seem to have enough space. Now only 10 so have lost 3. Thankyou all for your feedback. Cheers, Shirley. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gianniz Posted January 7, 2009 Share Posted January 7, 2009 hey champ, i am pretty certain your peppermints are fighting amongst themselves. at that size they would start to form alpha male, dominance and will fight aggressively. I have noticed this in all 3 of my tank. Pretty much all my pepps had damaged fins and stuff but once the dispute is settled, you should be fine as the weaker one will back off. I have over 10 altos with 4 peppermints and I haven't noticed much (if any!) action between the two species. Are you talking about dimi comps or alto comps? If dimi's I would say they are the culprits. cheers, Jason Was talking about alto comps. Have moved them out leaving the P BN on their own. THey are all fry so they seem to have enough space. Now only 10 so have lost 3. Thankyou all for your feedback. Cheers, Shirley. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bristlenose2008 Posted January 9, 2009 Share Posted January 9, 2009 Tottie, I am no expert but certainly have to comment due to the large collection on BN's that I own. I have close to 24 BN's , (not fry's) and have seen some 6-7cm ones fighing amongs them self. The BN's seem to fight only those whom are the same size as they are. So the big 13cm one does not pick on another smaller one, but must say he has his own territory and others are not welcome in its hole. My pepps have been seen fighing with the albinos, and by calicos have been fighing on off with the peps and the albinos. It is always the males. Never any damage on fins, and I do not think they can cause damage to each other. Fights usually last only a few minutes from my experience. I have however been pricked by the largest BN either by the side fin or near the side of the face they have something that can prick you. I have caught him without a net when moving it from one tank to another to save time and limit the stress. The only advice I can give you that may be valuable to you that no one ever told me was, the large BN's if not fed well will eat some of your plants leafs. The plants mine have killed was my fastest growing and one of the toughest plant. It is called the temple plant. The other is have as many caves for them as possible. Mine dig up the gravel under large rocks, and sometimes when the rock is not leaning on another rock the gravel gives way and my BN can die. Happened once so far. Damien Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gianniz Posted January 10, 2009 Share Posted January 10, 2009 in my tank i haven't seen them fight since their hiarchys been established, however i removed the biggest one with the most bristle (mines still only 5-6cm) and the 2 biggest ones went at it again. Its stopped after a day or so and now the winner is the alpha and whenever he comes near the others run (except for the girl who seems to be not bothered by the male). i know pepps are extremely hard to sex when young but I those who seen enough of them should be able to sex them with say 70-80% accuracy. to me their faces look totally different. Best i can describe, the males seem to look as if they have a spare tyre around their mouth (imagine bumper karts and their tyres surround it) while the female lacks this feature. ps can someone confirm this theory of mine Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YAL05T Posted January 14, 2009 Share Posted January 14, 2009 i know pepps are extremely hard to sex when young but I those who seen enough of them should be able to sex them with say 70-80% accuracy. to me their faces look totally different. Best i can describe, the males seem to look as if they have a spare tyre around their mouth (imagine bumper karts and their tyres surround it) while the female lacks this feature. ps can someone confirm this theory of mine I have 3 pepp breeding groups consisting of 19 adult fish now, and while the above is correct to a certain degree, from my observations at times fish that appear to be female with minimal bristle such as just a few around the edge will start to get that "spare tyre" and grow in more bristle, I had this happen on a 12cm SL "female" who is now the dominant male in the 3rd group Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gianniz Posted January 14, 2009 Share Posted January 14, 2009 Hi YAL05T, I know that peps are not like bristlenose and they can disguise (cross dresser ) but the question I want to ask is that can true females get the bristles around the edge of their mouth? I noticed everyone has that 2 pointed bristle at the front of the face but only 2 of them started to develop Moustache "minimal bristle such as just a few around the edge will start to get that" i know pepps are extremely hard to sex when young but I those who seen enough of them should be able to sex them with say 70-80% accuracy. to me their faces look totally different. Best i can describe, the males seem to look as if they have a spare tyre around their mouth (imagine bumper karts and their tyres surround it) while the female lacks this feature. ps can someone confirm this theory of mine I have 3 pepp breeding groups consisting of 19 adult fish now, and while the above is correct to a certain degree, from my observations at times fish that appear to be female with minimal bristle such as just a few around the edge will start to get that "spare tyre" and grow in more bristle, I had this happen on a 12cm SL "female" who is now the dominant male in the 3rd group Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rosco Posted January 15, 2009 Share Posted January 15, 2009 I have no problem with bullying but they are a little fragile IMO at 3-4 cm and not really stable until they reach 5-6cm so they do drop off a bit. here is a picture of one of my "MOMMAS". This was 12 m+ ago and she could use even more of shave now cheers rosco Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gianniz Posted January 15, 2009 Share Posted January 15, 2009 thanks Rosco, I guess that answers my question Peppermint is one fish that I spent 1000's and weren't able to breed so I am going to breed them this time around no matter what happens! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rosco Posted January 15, 2009 Share Posted January 15, 2009 They have been my arch nemesis fish for over 3 years. I have grown all my from fry, the first 3 were all girls, bought a mature male and 10 more fry 2 years ago and still I have only had one spawn. I gave them 3 water changes in a week, removed the substrate (thus a massive drop in nitrates) and started using Aqua-pics Amazon crytsla and &>0 ph control and boo-yah a spawn of 80+ eggs. Unfurtnately they were kicked out a day later and I missed it so I lost the eggs due to fungus. I have not been able to replicate this again or produce another spawn. . I will get these going as well. cheers rosco Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gianniz Posted January 15, 2009 Share Posted January 15, 2009 They have been my arch nemesis fish for over 3 years. I have grown all my from fry, the first 3 were all girls, bought a mature male and 10 more fry 2 years ago and still I have only had one spawn. I gave them 3 water changes in a week, removed the substrate (thus a massive drop in nitrates) and started using Aqua-pics Amazon crytsla and &>0 ph control and boo-yah a spawn of 80+ eggs. Unfurtnately they were kicked out a day later and I missed it so I lost the eggs due to fungus. I have not been able to replicate this again or produce another spawn. . I will get these going as well. cheers rosco I know someone who breeds them and he explained the setups etc. Just like you rosco, it was bare bottom but huge driftwood (logs) and it was on the floor without much light at all (infact it was too dark to much, even with the room light on) . Not sure about the water change etc but he seemed to pump out peps Hope that helps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YAL05T Posted January 15, 2009 Share Posted January 15, 2009 Yeah some of my big girls have a bit of a Mo' going on, I bought 10 around 4-5 years ago and they all ended up being female, I picked up a single male in Sydney at 14cm for $99 and was given another one by a mate who thought it was dead as he hadnt seen it, then found a 13cm mature male in his tank. From that I have added a few more that have grown from my first batch, and at one stage had over 500 pepp fry growing out, I try to limit their breeding now until I can get some more mature males to even out the numbers as it's just batch after batch and the poor males loose condition too severely. Here are the last 2 "logs" worth: I also took pity on a batch of ABN and saved them from my main tank so they are in there too until I can shift them to the new fish room. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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