Unusual pj cardinal fish behavior.

[phoenix91]

I've searched around the internet and can't find anything to explain the behavior of my 2 pj cardinals. They've been in the 40g tank for about a year, it's low flow and they have 4 other small tank mates.

 

One of them is hovering around along the substrate and has almost made itself a slight ditch to sit in; the other is floating close to with it's mouth gaping open. They only started doing this this morning but it's puzzling me.

 

Is the one in the ditch sick maybe? Or is it displaying some kind of breeding behavior? It really wants to be in this exact spot, and has bugged the female clown enough that she's ripped its tail trying to move it on, it's chosen a spot under the huge leather that the two clowns hang around.

 

Any advice or explanation as to what this could be?

[Clown79]

It sounds like breeding behaviour. The males carry the eggs in their mouth.

[phoenix91]

I was able to get a closer look at the fish and it's fins are all ripped up, i think at this point it's struggling to stay in the water column and is resting on the bottom; i suspect the female clown got nasty with it. Hopefully it'll recover in the next week or so. .