Well, I just wasn't happy with the way things were going. With only the dominant male in the four-foot main tank, and nothing going on, it was
boring to say the least.

The other two assumed males in their twenty-gallon tanks were doing nothing
but hiding in their sand pits under their rocks; so much so that I never
even saw them come out to eat at any hour of the day.

As I explained in my last post, after she released her fry, I had no place
to put female number one but back in the main tank, which was extremely stressful for her.

To top it off, this morning it looked like female number two was no longer holding any eggs, or at least very few, if at all. That may possibly confirm
my theory that the eggs were never fertilized.

In short, by dividing up the fish into five different tanks in order to
escape the aggression of the dominant male, I had broken their social structure, and ended up with nothing interesting to watch, and the fish just weren't acting naturally.

So, I just spent the first half of the day redesigning part of the main
tank, adding even more tunnels and caves on top of the already-established
base rocks. The base rocks themselves all sit on top of smaller support
rocks, so that there is space along most of the length of the tank, between
the sandy substrate and the base rocks.

But talk about a work in vanity! My dominant male, "Bully Boy", must have a special homing device, because that tyrant has already figured out the
entire new tunnel and cave system, and is back to chasing the other four
fish, and there is a lot of fleeing and panting going on...but at least it
is interesting...and there are plenty more hiding places. :)

I think female number one will be okay, because now Bully Boy's aggression
is dispersed amongst four fish, and they all get an even dose of his wrath.

As far as the remaining three fry are concerned, I haven't caught sight of them. They could be hiding, but considering what happened to the other five,
I am assuming that they either died, or were eaten by now.


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