Went to bed with 3 DPs, woke up with 1?!

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Macks
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Went to bed with 3 DPs, woke up with 1?!

Post by Macks »

I finally went out and got 3 DPs yesterday—they were generally sticking together while they were checking out the tank, everyone seemed cool—I woke up today and now I only have 1? I’m so confused. I checked my water parameters and they’re all fine. My tank is moderate-heavily planted, so sight lines should be broken up. My only guesses as to what happened to their bodies (if they died) was that they were picked apart by my ghost shrimp because they’re the biggest opportunists I know and will jump all over any semi-edible thing they can get. Did my fish fight...? Or did the single contender kill them both off? I know there’s no way of anyone answering me definitively, but is this normal? I’m so confused. Please help!
Macks
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Re: Went to bed with 3 DPs, woke up with 1?!

Post by Macks »

Here’s a shot of my tank for you to see how planted it is... oh, also, my tank is 13.5 gallons (effectively 12) so I thought 3 DPs would be fine...
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Macks
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Re: Went to bed with 3 DPs, woke up with 1?!

Post by Macks »

And to correct my first post, not IF but WHEN they died because if they aren’t inside of my tank then they can’t really be alive anywhere else lol
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Re: Went to bed with 3 DPs, woke up with 1?!

Post by Pufferpunk »

Those are a lot of plants to hide in. Are you sure they're not in there?
You are getting sleepy... you only hear the sound of my voice... you must do water changes... water changes... water changes... water changes...

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Macks
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Re: Went to bed with 3 DPs, woke up with 1?!

Post by Macks »

I went in with my aquascaping tools and poked around first to make sure they aren’t there. And I made sure to watch my tank for about a good hour before I came to the conclusion of them being gone. I talked to the guy at the LFS I got my DPs at, and he thinks the culprits are the ghost shrimp. I would have more doubts about that if I didn’t catch one of those jerks eating a moderately sized cherry shrimp an hour after I added it to the tank 2 weeks ago, so I do know that at least one of them is capable of catching fast/decently sized prey. I’m taking them out and donating them to Petco and adding two new DPs today... wish me luck! Any input is still appreciated from anyone.
Macks
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Re: Went to bed with 3 DPs, woke up with 1?!

Post by Macks »

I think I figured out the culprit, the last standing fish from the original 3. I’m now again down from 3 to 2, and this one is definitely male (yellow belly) and will NOT allow the female (white belly) to go outside of a very small area and keeps harassing her. I separated him and I’m going to ask if my LFS will trade him. Does it matter if I have a male? Can I have 3 females?
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JayEmpty
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Re: Went to bed with 3 DPs, woke up with 1?!

Post by JayEmpty »

I have four females and they are doing well. At least for me.
Macks
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Re: Went to bed with 3 DPs, woke up with 1?!

Post by Macks »

Ok, great, thank you! Going today to swap out the bully and get new girls.
Macks
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Re: Went to bed with 3 DPs, woke up with 1?!

Post by Macks »

Can anyone give me tips on feeding? So far I’ve been feeding them frozen bloodworms individually with tweezers. I was thinking this might not be a sustainable practice, I don’t want them to only associate food with the tweezers. While I enjoy the personal time with them doing that, I would rather not have them rely solely on being hand fed. I was hesitant to just throw some food in there and let them have at it because I worry that any of them will overeat, while others might not get enough. I’ve been growing a snail population for them, too, so I’ve thrown some in, but they haven’t shown any interest in them yet.
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JayEmpty
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Re: Went to bed with 3 DPs, woke up with 1?!

Post by JayEmpty »

Wait. Do you want to swap your guy with my 2 girls? Oh, not the pale one though. My wife named her Bella. I know, I know. :D
Macks wrote: Wed Nov 14, 2018 9:28 pm Can anyone give me tips on feeding? ....
I have cultured black and tubifex worms. I initially bought a portion of both from my LFS. Googled on how to culture them and then that's it. I also started with frozen mini blood worms. I also did the same thing. Feed them by using tweezers. When I switched to the cultured worms, I initially started using the tweezers, but after a while, though I'm still using tweezers, I just use them to drop the worms. On snails, I use a small pliers to crush big snails. But I usually just give them small ones. They don't eat the shells, in my case, they just eat what's inside.

Lastly, whenever I see at the end of the day that there are leftovers, I just use a turkey baster to get them.

I hope that helped, even just a bit.
Macks
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Re: Went to bed with 3 DPs, woke up with 1?!

Post by Macks »

That really did help, I super appreciate it. And it would have been nice to have made the trade with you because that was exactly what I needed lol (until I went out and swapped the bully a few hours ago.) Do you ever have problems with over feeding? I’ve read before that I shouldn’t worry too much about making sure all the fish eat, because when a fish is hungry enough they’ll make sure they get their food before another one swoops in. I would prefer the method of dropping them in and just cleaning up later on when I get home for the day. I’ve kept black worms before, and I honestly really hated it because of the smell and the way they felt. I’m usually not too squeamish, but I have never been a big fan of any times of worm. I’ll go find some frozen ones and give those a try. I figured I could crush snails up for them, too, and then eventually they might start associating that with the live snails and go after them. I’m basically trying to train them to feed themselves when in the future I go out of town by putting snails in the tank for them to hunt while I’m gone. I don’t travel often, but I just like figuring stuff like this out ahead of time to make life easier. Thanks so much again.
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JayEmpty
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Re: Went to bed with 3 DPs, woke up with 1?!

Post by JayEmpty »

Macks wrote: Thu Nov 15, 2018 1:02 am Do you ever have problems with over feeding? I’ve read before that I shouldn’t worry too much about making sure all the fish eat, because when a fish is hungry enough they’ll make sure they get their food before another one swoops in.
This is very true. I have observed this a lot of times. So don't worry too much.
Macks wrote: Thu Nov 15, 2018 1:02 am I’m basically trying to train them to feed themselves when in the future I go out of town by putting snails in the tank for them to hunt while I’m gone. I don’t travel often, but I just like figuring stuff like this out ahead of time to make life easier. Thanks so much again.
Oh, don't worry. They will go and hunt those snails when the time comes. I am sure of that. I use to think that they just leave those snails alone until they didn't get fed for one weekend. There was a significant reduction on the smaller snails population after that.

I'm glad that I was able to help. Good luck.
Macks
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Re: Went to bed with 3 DPs, woke up with 1?!

Post by Macks »

Guys. It happened again. I left for school this morning with 3 DPs and now I’m home and I have two. Something is seriously wrong. I feel like a fish murderer. Please help me with any ideas you have, ANYTHING. I’m convinced this is just going to keep happening and tomorrow there will only be 1 again. I don’t understand what I’m doing so wrong and I feel terrible because all of these fish have had to pay for whatever kind of wrong it is I’m doing to them. I’m going to stop getting new fish so I don’t keep killing them however I have been. Please, ANY ideas are welcome.
Macks
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Re: Went to bed with 3 DPs, woke up with 1?!

Post by Macks »

OH MY GOD I FIGURED IT OUT. My filtration is all inside of a walled off compartment. I had checked out all of the compartments, the fish were stuck inside of the sponge compartment my biomedia is. 2 dead, 1 STILL ALIVE (I’m assuming the one from today) and so I got her out. There is a hole in the wall right there, but I thought since the biomedia sits right against it that it would be sort of sealed off, if that makes sense, so I never considered that being a problem. I plugged it up with a small bit of filter sponge.
I feel terrible. Those other two fish were jammed in there suffering for god knows how long. I guess at least I know better now, but I kind of hate myself right now.
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JayEmpty
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Re: Went to bed with 3 DPs, woke up with 1?!

Post by JayEmpty »

Oooph. I'm sorry about that. But at least, now, you know what happened and had already taken measures to correct the problem. Just make sure that the small bit of filter sponge is really secure does not get removed easily. Otherwise, the puffers might find their way again inside.
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