Fighting

danny · Dec 18, 2004

Hello there, I have 4 P waltl newts all four range from 2.5 to 3inches long, whenever I feed them they all start to fight and follow one another. They do not hesitate in biting each other and today I had to pull two apart after one clamped onto the others front leg. The tank is a 15gal and plan on getting another one when they get bigger so I can two tanks with a single pair in each. Are they over crowded right now as it is? Will I have to take each one out separately and feed them individually? Thanx

paris · Dec 19, 2004

its not uncommon,-the size of your tank is fine for them for right now, they just have a disposition to get over excited about the food-my observations is its not aggression just hunger-my shanjings, tailengensis, tarichas, hynobids...etc all do it-even my pleuros, but unlike the hynobids and tigers they are not prone to grabbing a limb/tail by mistake and then still eating it. they usually do fine in groups-i know of a guy who has 8 adults in a 55 gallon tank w/o any issues, you may just want to feed them less but more often so they wont be as aggressive for food.

joeri · Dec 19, 2004

My pleuro's tend to fight for food as well. However it doesn't seem that they really hurt each other. They did give me a scare the first times they bit in each others face - but no harm was done. For some reason they don't do that anymore, only biting in the legs still happens.

It looks scary indeed and in my case what Paris advised works - feed more often, but less. If they are very hungry they'll go into a frenzy for food

so try to reduce the hungry feeling between feeding sessions.

danny · Dec 19, 2004

Thanx for the advice! It was scary to see one newt in a death roll bitting his tank mate! I will try to feed them half portions everyday instead of a full portion once every two days

paris · Dec 19, 2004

since they are so young-feeding them more will result in a faster growth rate-although it will require more filtration/water changes as a result.

danny · Dec 20, 2004

For the filter I have a fluval 2 in there. I modified it to cut down the output flow. It takes in the same amount of water as I can see stray blood worms float readily into the filter intakes on the sides. These 4 dont miss a thing, after the feeding "frenzy" is over they calm down and form a horizontal line almost. Just like looking at combines in a field, they comb the gravel for anything they might have missed! haha not much syphoning of leftovers here!

mike · Dec 21, 2004

How did you modify the Fluval for less output flow Danny?

danny · Dec 21, 2004

For the fluval 2, its really easy. You separate the filter housing from the pump/output. Then you take the filters out(should be two halves). Once the main part is empty you should be able to look inside, when you move the blue switch that controls the output flow, you will notice it will stop after it hits a little black piece of plastic. I just took a hobby drill and drilled a little bit out of the middle of it. Then I took some needlenose pliers and just twisted the little nub off. Cleaned it extra good after to make sure no little pieces of plastic would be left. Now you can open and close the output as much as you like! Enjoy! If I had a digital camera I would be able to take pictures to make it alot easier to understand.

mike · Dec 22, 2004

Thanks for that Danny. I'm not familiar with that model, but won't that drastically effect the flow rate, and therefore the efficiency of the filter?

danny · Dec 22, 2004

I havent noticed the efficiency of the filter has changed in any manner. When the newts are swimming around and kicking up food or when the plants loose a leaf they are sucked right to the filter intakes. I havent turned the filter output right down to the minimum yet, just enough so the P waltl can swim around alot easier

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