I have a male and female OB red zebras. They are currently housed in a 5' 120G tank with various other species.

Almost 2 months ago I had a very bad shock when comeing home from work. I found my F OB upsided down under some rocks. I had seen zero aggression towards her in the days before. Whatever happened , happened fast and was very serious.

I took her out putting her into a 20G hospital tank. Salted and melifixed the tank for several weeks. In which I was very happy to see a complete turn around. After a few weeks of haveing all her fins back, and eating greedily , acting very 'spunky', with great colouring, I added her back into the tank.

When I added her I had removed all the rocks to catch other fish. So all rockwork was freshly layed.

Pretty much as soon as she entered the tank, the M OB began 'showing off' for her. From best I could see, was just wanting to spawn. She however showed zero interest and ended up running away to the top corner, behind my FX5 outtake hose.

Now its been almost a week. I have watched her come out of hideing cautiously then runs back when the M OB comes near. She comes out and still greedily eats. Her hideing certainly implys stress, yet other than that...there is no signs. Her colouring is great, but her fins are begining to get a lil ratted on the ends.

Any suggestions on how I can sort this problem out? Why she has become so seemingly scared of the M.

I may be forced to move them to 2 seperate groups, but would like not to if I can avoid it. My true hopes were to have them breed together.

Andrew

Not an expert here, but I think you may need to add a few more
females to the tank in order to spread the "aggression" and to defer
his attention to some other females.

I want to see what others say!

Good luck Andrew!

I do appreciate your opinion PB, however I dont think thats the problem. there is @ least 3 other females in the tank besides her. No1 else seems afraid or stressed...just the girly OB.

Are the other females OB's?

I just realized I dont know if OB's seek each other out in the Lake or breed routinely with their non-OB conspecifics.

That would tell us whether he thinks he has 1 girlfriend or a harem in the 55G.

The other females are not OB, and he spawns with them regularly. Its also a 120G tank.

I'm wondering if its a problem because of the similar markings.

He might see her as a threat. Not to second guess you here Andrew but are you sure she is in fact a she and not a sub-dominant he? Has he ever spawned with her? The only reason why I asked that is because I have read numerous posts saying that if it's an OB it's a male, whether that is true or not I'm not sure. I've only had OB peacocks and they were both males.

Cturner, please ..2nd guess me :) Thats how things get worked out.

Its funny you say about OB posts, re males. When I first got them, I noticed in the CF profiles section, that every pic of an OB is female. And in fact some species the females are all OB. So I guessed that all OBs were female.

1 OB dark orange, dark black markings
1 OB lighter orange, light markings, more puplish colour than black

So not knowing for sure, and being the sponge that I am, I wanted to know more. I posted a thread 'are all OBs female'. The Thread, if youd like to check it out.

I am certain (almost ;) I havent vented them to say 100%) of their sex due to colouring. I have seen him spawn with non-OB red zebras, in which I have almost half OB fry. I have not seen her spawn.

Okay well maybe the Male OB thing is just for peacocks and not mbuna. Here's a pic of my male OB's that I used to have until he just didn't get along with his tank mates. Sorry that's the best pic I could find with the both of them together.