Bloodthirsty Botia Striata?

[jwyfk]

I made a post back in October, because my Clown Loaches looked like they were being attacked by a parasite. Last night I'm pretty certain I found the parasite...one of my Striatas. I had 3 tiny Striatas, then added 3 more, but 2 are much larger than the rest of them. I witnessed one of these guys sneaking up on my Clowns and biting them. The Clowns just swim away.

The Striata is a beautiful fish, but my Clowns are more important to me. Should I add more Striatas, since this larger Striata doesn't really hang out with the smaller ones, or just give him away? Striatas I've owned have always been peaceful. What should I do?

Here is a picture of the marks on one of my fish:

[greenbaron]

those don't look like bite marks? I'm no expert... did you see them biting on the side of that fish like that?

[mistergreen]

my b. histrionica used to pick on my rainbow fish who was 3x their size at the time. The rainbow was sick when that happened.

[bslindgren]

I've seen mine "shadow" a larger clown, but never bite it. They do get eyes from smaller fish though. I've had two cases - I have 10 striatas 2-3 inches in size.

I would probably try to remove the offending striata first. They do have rather individual behaviours.

[jwyfk]

I can't be 100% certain of anything, because the biting happens, then the fish swim away. What would a bite mark from a Striata look like? The marks are little pits. It's strange. Usually when fish nip at each other, they go after the fins. This guy stalks them from behind, then goes for the side. I did a quick search earlier and found reports of Striatas eating the eyes of smaller fish.

After I'm done with my second dose of PraziPro, I plan to remove all the decorations and quarantine the fish to see if the marks go away.

[Doc]

I don't think they are bite marks. It may be that the Striata are picking at parasites on the Clowns.

[jwyfk]

You're probably right. This has absoutely been a horrible year for my fish. Medications seem to do more harm than good. I think I'll just stick to water changes and a healthy diet.

[wasserscheu]

I don't think they are bite marks. It may be that the Striata are picking at parasites on the Clowns.

that's was what I was thinking too.

[jwyfk]

Less than a week after removing the 6 Botia Striata, these marks on my Clown Loaches went away. I'll try to get a picture of the same fish.

Strange. I guess some Striatas like eyeballs and Clown Loach skin.

Here's someone else who had the same problem:

http://aquaweb.pair.com/forums/archives ... read=38177

[shari2]

psycho striata strikes again!

if they weren't so cute...

[bslindgren]

It must be certain individuals. I have ten of them and the incidences are rather few and far between. I've had them for a year and a half and three fish have lost an eye each. Other than that no problems at all. You are right, Shari, if they weren't so cute.....I do like them in every other respect!

[newshound]

hey that link was to the old bbs
kinda still miss it

[jwyfk]

Striatas are cute. I've owned a couple of them in the past, and they were fine. It would be difficult to find out which individuals are doing this, although I have identified one of them. I managed to get a picture of the same Clown. The wounds are healed, but for some reason the black areas have lightened since the "overdose" of Levamisole. Since he's bending, it looks lighter than it actually is, but there's something going on with the pigmentation.



newshound, I didn't even know that link was associated with this one, but I did recognize some of the screen names.