can fish get stuck?

L

latazyo

Grisled
Sep 17, 2002
387
0
0
when my convicts breed the male gets really aggressive wityh my female and injures her all the time, I do not want to remove them and put them back together constantly

if I make a pipe network of caves for her that only she can fit into, will the male attempt to get into them and get himself wedged in the hole and stuck?

if I make this out of 1" PVC she will fit and he definitely will not

any ideas?
 
This is true. I have a beautiful driftwood log that has a sort of central hollow that runs through it, almost like a tunnel that opens up in the middle and narrows to a tube at one end. I have seen a number of fish; mollies, neons and various algae eaters that I thought were stuck reapear elsewhere. I have seen them turn on a dime inside a narrow opening.
 
My only experience with this is pretty recent - and sad. I have a small castle in my cory tank, which the cories love. On Labor Day, I found my favorite cory (Jenny) dead, laying sideways on her way out of the bottom, front of the castle (very small opening). I checked the water (all readings were good), I inspected her body (no signs of injury or disease), and I observed the other cories for a while (all appear happy and healthy). So..... I can only assume that she got stuck and since she was sideways, maybe she couldn't open her gills. I could be wrong, but that's all I could think of.

Until this happened, I would have agreed with the Matak and demon surfer. Now, I would suggest watching the male carefully to make sure he doesn't try to fit inside the pipe.
 
If they do get stuck, the stress will probably limit their survival time...but I think that the PVC piping networks are the oft-recommended way to curb male Convicts' breeding-related aggression.
 
convict caves

I keep two breeding pairs of convicts in my 90 gallon tank. Being an avid gardener, I went and purchased a lot (about 25) of clean, various-sized terra cotta flower pots. Everything from the 2" sized pot to the 12". I used a hammer to chip out openings in the different pots. Some of them are large enough for an adult severum, and others are only big enough for a female convict. For the pots I accidentally shattered I filed the edges of the pieces smooth and leaned them against the sides of the unbroken pots as additional crevices. I then arranged these throughout the aquarium, with the larger ones in the back (some stacked on top of the other) and the smaller ones towards the front. Some are simply small pots half buried in the substrate. I put lots of natural looking plastic plants behind the pots and in front of the openings. With all the places to hide my fish seem very confident and are usually swimming around the front of the tank in full view. My males are never able to bully the females much since they can easily find the right size place to hide in. I've never seen any problems with them getting stuck.

Make sure you don't use any flower pots that you have used fertilizers or pesticides with, that is why I purchased new ones. They're pretty cheap so I found it a good solution instead of purchasing expensive aquarium product caves.
 
Here's a thought, make the opening to the caves/pipe network smaller than the pipe itself and make sure that there is enough room inside for a fish to turn around. That way, you know the fish won't get stuck.
 
I have considered doing that also, but my concern is with the male actually getting stuck in the opening
 
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