The waiting game

[Acrylic]

I'm starting to have my doubts about the little guy's chances. I'm seeing fresh nips in his fins, and he doesn't come out from under his rock very often. When I feed, he'll stay under his rock and wait for food to float by and get what he can that way.

It's odd though, when he does come out into the open, he'll swim right beside the big maroon and there's no problems. If the little one approaches the big one's territroy by surprise though, the big one usually charges at him, they butt heads, and the little guy starts twitching like he's having a seizure and then they part ways - the little guy inevitably returning to the safety of his rock.

I feel sorry for the little bugger, but I don't see much I can do to help. He's survived 2 weeks, maybe things will get better.

Did my first water change the other day, thanks for the input.

 

[Acrylic]

Gonna let this thread die off now, thanks for all the help so far.

 

[Doc]

unfortunately, my experience has been that the longer a fish is under stress, the more likely they are to die. If they do not get along within the first 24 hours, chances are they will never get along and the weaker fish is doomed to die. The only way to get them to be friends is to take out the aggressor for several days and rearrange the rock work. Once the smaller fish has found their niche, you can add the aggressor back. If it works, the aggressor will need to establish new territory. I just had to do that adding a fish yesterday. Chasing is normal for the first day, maybe two as the established fish are exerting their dominance. Longer than that spells trouble.

-Doc