Strange behavior with my pair of PJ cardinals

[vickiwilson]

Hi everyone,

Tonight when i got home i noticed my two pj cardinals acting very strangely.  One (the bigger one) is sitting on the bottom in a kind of ditch it has dug; this fish really wants to be in the ditch, so much so that the annoyed female clown can't chase it away and has torn up its fins.  The other cardinal is floating around close by with it's mouth gaping open.  Ive seen the floating one swoop down a few time and shove the resting one; its shoving so hard the resting one is ending up on its side.

So, i took to the internet, looked up breeding behavior and that kind of thing but didn't really find anything conclusive.  So anyone have an opinion?  Do i need to be worried this fish is sick/injured?  or are they deciding to have a go at spawning?  I have no idea if it's a male or female that's resting on the substrate.

Thanks

[jfishwild]

My cardnails breed 4 to 5 times a year. I have never seen Them do what you are describing. But when they do mate the male always carries the babies and he will not eat until they hatch. But I have not seen them be mean to each other.

[vickiwilson]

It doesn't appear mean, the clown's being mean.  The other cardinal looks like it's trying to get the substrate one's attention, like a "hey, you..." kind of nudge.  The one on the substrate it twitching it's fins a lot, but they both do this a lot when they're swimming around.

[jfishwild]

Are they both eating?  The clown might be stressing it out.

[vickiwilson]

They were both eating this morning, but then again they were both acting normal this morning.  I've had a closer look without it trying to hide now the lights are off, it's fins are all torn up, something had a pretty good go at it, poor fish.  Hopefully if it is stressed out it'll stay away from the clown overnight and recover a bit.  The clown is off in the corner now the lights are out and will most likely stay there overnight.  Luckily the tank is usually peaceful and only has 6 fish; the female clown is the only mildly aggressive one in there. 

Fingers crossed it lasts the night as i don't have a spare tank i can transfer it to.

[vickiwilson]

It must have been a fight between the two cardinals, the one that was struggling was dead this morning and the other one with it's mouth open looks like it's either missing part of its jaw or has a broken bottom jaw.  Not much I can really do but see if the remaining one recovers.  It's still swimming, still colored fully but I'm not sure if it's eating much. 

They were both eating really well before this incident so I'm assuming this one can got for a little while without food while it recovers.  It's just waiting to see now I think. 

[vickiwilson]

One of the cardinals died over the weekend, He was struggling with shredded fins.

The other looks to have a broken jaw, but is managing to vacuum up food bits, it's still coloured up and swimming.  So here's hoping it pulls through.  I suspect it can live without a functioning jaw.  Also has a new name 'Jaws' because he is a murderer.