well the last 5 days I've lost 1 Petricola , 1 large albino pleco , and today I found a small half eaten Raphael cat in my 125. don't have any idea what has happened other then someone is killing them. my guess is the Marmalade cat I have in there. it is my sons fish so there is no moving it out. but the thing is mental. frustrating not knowing for sure why this has happened.

I hate that feeling...

Was there a recent addition to or change in the tank?

That's really weird, Ted...How long have they been in there together?

Kim

No new changes or additions and they have been together for some time now.
I'm writing it up as aggression from the marmalade cat. some day I'll move that guy along.

Well, I think I'd hold off on putting anymore catfish in there until I got rid of Charles Manson!

My guy was old when I got him, so I think all his aggression was spent.

I do find these young trewavasae that we have to be very aggressive, though!

Kim

I don't plan on adding any fish anymore.. what I have is it for a very long time. LOL I think I'm kind of spent maintaining multiple tanks these days Or should I say I don't want to have breeders any further.

once I sell off my Zebra and Afra fry I'm going to sell the tanks also just so I don't have anything empty to go crazy with. Drooly

I know what you mean, Ted. A few months ago we broke down 5 tanks and gave one to Pete's mom and put the rest in storage. The ones in storage are slowly coming back into the apartment, one at a time! We should have sold them, but then I can just see us justifying buying a new set up!

Kim

Ted, could it be a low o2 level. It is summer and the water in our tanks is warmer and the cats hang out on the bottom where the o2 concentration is typically lower. I lost my kilsea to low o2...the cyps were fine. I put air wands in all my tanks after that one.

That could be an issue debbie but I think I have that covered. a few months ago I removed my air pumps for good. and I replaced them with 2 powerheads for better water circulation mainly. I was feeling like my tanks surface was not getting stirred up enough in the 125 so I went to power heads to shake it up. that worked out great for me.

I think the best way for me to avoid getting more tanks for breeding is to set up just a couple large tanks ( over 125 gallons) and keep no smaller tanks, that way I can't go nuts with breeding since I'll be too poor to buy smaller tanks again. :D and I don't have the time to tend to fry tanks. not properly anyway. I may end up with a 125 Malawian and a 180 tang set up.

actually I mat even get out of Malawians completely. I've been considering S/A C/A . some thing different... maybe Discus. I'm getting tired of the Mbunas aggression basically.

Discus are beautiful, but I think they would bore you quickly Ted, you are used to the action of mbuna and discus aren't too active. Geophagus might be a better SAs for you as they aren't as aggressive as mbuna but are active. Sounds like you have the o2 covered, might just be that marmalade cat being naughty.