CAE: Very Strange Behavior, Help?

[William]

He has been acting very strange over the past, day or so I would guess.

He as been VERY twitchy, exploding into random bouts that send him twitching so fast that hes a blurr, and he has been excevating a very deep hole in the sand.

When he is not doing this, he just sits in the hole, or somewhere where he can see the hole, and watches it.

He dosn't defend the hole, he just watches it, and digs it deeper, and gets even more twitchy.

Any ideas? is he just being a doof or is something going on?


Thanks.

 

[heavenly]

Maybe those are signs he is ready to mate. I have no experiance on this paticular fish but maybe that will help.

 

[emd]

Hello
Your CAE topic caught my interest only because I bought 2 of them and they died within 2 weeks. When I got them I found them extremely frightened by my other fish (who I think are harmless...platies, tetras, corys). I specifically bought them for my brown algae and I believe their was plenty of that algae for them to eat so I don't think they starved. I also had spinach leaves and cucumbers but they didn't eat that. They acted really bizarre and always were on edge. I recently bought a rubber-lipped pleco and he too died within a few days...not sure why my algae eaters are dying on me?

When did you get your CAE? How long have you had it? Sounds like it's acting the same way as mine did...except I didn't have any sand for them to dig holes in.

 

[Menagerie]

I recently bought a rubber-lipped pleco and he too died within a few days...not sure why my algae eaters are dying on me?

emd, before you get another algae eater, start your own thread and we can try to trouble shoot the problem. I have had my Rubber Lip for over a year and he's doing great. BTW~~Welcome to AA!

 

[mortiss]

hi william - can't help you because he's acting just like the one i bought 4 days ago! I put him in the QT and he's absolutely NUTS. maybe thats the way they act???

 

[William]

My CAEs have never acted like this before, they've been hyper and goofy, but never like this one in particular is right now.


I bougth 3 CAE a year and a half ago, they were all 2 inches long.

Since then, one magically disappeared [ Was not in filter, to big to disappear in waterchange, was not carpet surfing, had no fish-eating pets at the time, ect ect. It just disappeared ]. One has only grown to a length of around 5 to 6 inches and has become very aggressive, and the other has only grown an inch.

The smaller one was removed to my tetra tank because the larger one was being far to aggressive towards it.

The disappearing one never acted strange, the small one is as mellow as can be and quite happy in his peaceful home, and the larger one in my 29FW is the one that is acting strange, digging up the bottom, darting all around and being extremly aggressive towards all the other fish in the tank, Especially the Bala Shark.

 

[mortiss]

huh - it sounds like it has to do with his/her "maturing" then. I wonder...

 

[madasafish]

Yeah; a lot of fish excavate the gravel/sand before laying eggs/spawning. Mostly cichlids, though... It's possible that he or she has suddenly gotten the urge to mate.

 

[marknmelissa]

I've found the gold colored CAEs are less aggressive than the normal colored ones. Anyone else noticed this?
-Mark

 

[holyherbiness]

My CAE is somewhat tame, only about three inches long.
Stays relatively quiet until any of my 10 or so Flying foxes comes near it, in which case the CAE chases them away with great tenacity.
never seen such bizzare behavior though.