So the tank seems to have been a bit quieter today. Either there's not so much chasing, or she's just doing it when I'm not around. She's been pretty busy digging out her new cave as well as a couple of other spots around the tank. It appears he's dug out his cave as well.
However this afternoon I noticed all his fins are shredded... hard to know whether she's done it, or whether it's happened due to the stress - he's been moved twice in week after all, and then had to put up with her.
I tried really hard to get a pic of his fins but it proved impossible, so I snuck a video - and exactly at that moment she decided to show up. She enters his cave with a flourish, comes out and 'head butts' him, nudging him away a couple of times. Re-enters his cave, takes a couple of digs and then disappears back to her own cave. I tried to upload a gif that hopefully showed her behaviour but it was too large... and all a still that hopefully shows the state of his fins. Her 'head butting' appears fairly gentle - like she's kind of nudging him rather than bashing him...?
So, what really is she at? Is this purely aggression? Or something else?
I don't have a water tester, I get it done at the pet store, but hubby brings a pH tester home from work. On Weds my water was perfect, although pH up to 7.6. Last night the pH was down to 6.8 so unless there was an ammonia spike overnight for some reason, his fin condition has come from one or a combo of these 4 things - she's ripped them to pieces (very possible, although I haven't seen her actually nipping his fins, and it looks too regular for that); stress from the move and aggression; bad water quality at his original home (apparently the place the pet shop picked him up from had a pretty grotty tank...); OR his rock cave - they're natural rocks and I didn't sand them. I'm going to take his rock cave out tomorrow, check it for sharps, sand where necessary and silicon the rocks together to prevent a collapse.
Oh, and she's been chasing the guppies off if they come too close to her dug-out as well.
I would really appreciate any pointers on what she's playing at and how I should treat his fins.
