Female apisto wont eat and has turned pale

[matt]

Hi

I have a female apistogramma agassizi which has been fine, recently it has become very pale and now spends its time at the surface. Due to this I placed it in a seperate area so that it needn't worry about other fish etc and so that I could ensure it was eating. Its colour came back and then it was fine again so I released it back in with the other fish. A few days later the same behaviour has returned except now it doesn't really want to eat either.

Has anyone else experienced this? All the other fish are fine and the male apisto looks very healthy.

Any ideas appreciated,

thanks

Matt

 

[Chris S]

It seems likely that the male is hounding her, and she can't escape.

What size tank are they in and does she have "escape" routes?

 

[Mike Wise]

I agree with Chris. I appears to be an aggression problem. Make sure your female has someplace where she can hide and the male can't get to her. I use pieces of floating black plastic pipe in tanks like this. The picked on fish has someplace away from the aggressor to hide. I, too, would be interested in you tank and how it's set up. You may be able to change a few things around and make life less stressful for you and your fish.

 

[Chris S]

Mike,

I'm curious as to what type of pipe you use for that.



Chris

 

[Mike Wise]

I use polybutyl pipe - the kind used for water sprinklers systems. Unlike white polyvinyl pipe, it floats.

 

[Chris S]

Good call, I shall have to try that out.