HELP female beaten up

i have just noticed my female peppermint is looking really beaten up and i'm really worried. there's only a male and another female in the tank. do females fight?? i have treated the tank with easy life. i wanted to move her to a tank on her own but i cannot for the life of me find my spare heater and shops are shut so i have pulled lots of 'hiding things' (wood, logs, etc.) from another tank to provide more cover for her in the tank. (the other tank is my cichlid tank so definitely cannot move her there).
it's too hard for me to get any pics plus i don't want to stress her out. but all her fins are shredded and all down one of her side of her body is exposed flesh. Any ideas why she is in this state? would my male beat her up? i did a water change on sunday and all peppies were in great condition so this is recent. i won't be sleeping at all tonight as i fear the worst. The only other option i have is to put a breeding net in the tank (is only big enough for 5L or so) and have a piece of wood in there with air stone flowing right next to it. As i thought that may stress her out too much i decided against it.
THOUGHTS???

Not good i had the same problem a few weeks ago with my males....
The thing i can suggest is the thing you cant do....
I would have moved her to another tank whilst she recovers as its likely to happen again and im pretty sure that would be the end of her if it happens again whilst she is in that state.....
Ideally you need to move her out on her own and treat with melafix untill she starts to repair.......

As for your question, Do females fight?? Of course they do they can be far worse than males especially when food is around....

good luck with her.........

thanks curby
i will be moving her out today. One thing i am worried about is what happens if this continues once she recovers? How do i stop it or lower the chance of it happening again? Will adding more females to the tank help? Spread any aggression around a few fish rather than directed on one fish?
Cheers

Yes females will fight , I'd go grab a bottle of melafix and pimafix, which will treat your other fish for nasties aswell.
Changing tanks will take time to acclimatise your + if your fish has a bacterial infection you could pass this on to other fish.

J

cool thanks
wounded female is in her own 60L tank treated with melafix and pimafix. just took a filter (had 3 running) and the same water from my 3 ft tank she was in so she wouldn't stress over new water (and probably not be fit to tolerate it). i treated my 3ft tank too in case infection was present. hopefully she makes a healthy recovery!
how can i reduce females from fighting? Curby you mentioned it was usually over food, should i therefore split food up around the tank more? instead of putting one or two big pieces of vegies in i should put one or two per fish scattered around the tank? It may end up looking like a tank full of forks lol.

you have got it covered mate, well done

In terms of fighting you need to find out why its happening. If its over food then yes, splitting up the food is going to be a wise move. I would also suggest looking at adding in some extra hiding places. try some rocks or some extra wood

a combo of those will def help

thanks doug i've added more hiding places and plan on decking the tank out with heaps more plants too. female seems to be comfortable on her own - eating and swimming around happily. as my females are more shy than my male i'm glad i caught onto it before it was too late!
as always, thanks for all the help guys!

UPDATE:

just thought i'd let you guys know my female pep has made a full healthy recovery! half her body which was exposed flesh has healed and the two fins and tail which were almost completely gone have grown back and healed beutifully she's looking very happy with beautiful colouring so i may move her back to the main tank very soon
thanks again for the help guys!

we love a happy ending!

missed this post - I am so sorry

I breed L071 peppermints in my main tank along with ancistrus teminckii, my peppermints used to be in a 4ft tank on their own, but will I am in the process of moving home they are sharing a 80cm fluval tank (not the best option), and can safely say the peppermints can be aggressive. Far more aggressive than other species of bristlenose catfish.

While the majority of time they will be a peaceful species :P


Aggression in peppermint catfish can happen for a number of reasons.
A female peppermint can become overly aggressive around her male at mating times, both before and after mating,
infact to such a extent I once saw a small female peppermint having a mad attack on a male nearly twice her size.....

Peppermints can be aggressive and territorial around their caves, aquarium plants, food, and favourite resting spots.

Observe closely and if it happens again then a short term isolating in another tank with a few other fish can often help.

As others have stated feeding at different times and also breaking food up into smaller bits can help, as can feeding the fish at night before bed.


Sometimes if the peppermint which is showing signs of aggression can be isolated in a smaller tank by the side of the main tank this can help-
eg: so she can get accustomed to the site of the other fish, and not start a fight, and they can have lower aggression this way.

If the tank is big enough you could split the tank with a divider, though I would suggest this being one of the last options.

Sometimes you just get the occasional peppermint's that turn aggressive for no reason to each other, as you can with other fish,
and if you can not deal with it then it may be that you have to pass the peppermint on to another breeder or fish keeper ...

I know this will not be what you want to hear but sometime's it can be the only option left, and be the only way of helping that
fish survive, or alternatively protect the other fish in the aquarium.

It is testament to your good fish keeping that the peppermint is now improving.

I do hope all goes well for you and your fish.

Kind regards

LJ

thanks heaps for that LJ it's good to hear others experiences with peps i have been keeping a close eye on my peppermints since that day a female was looking quite bad so hopefully i catch aggression early. but i have been thinking as soon as i save up enough money i will be giving them a 4 foot tank and using the current 3 foot as a grow out tank for fry.
thanks for the info i will definitely take it on board!

your more than welcome, love the peppermints / white spotted pleco's as some other catfish books call them..

the L071 is my favourite, but they all provide many happy hours of pleasure to watch....