Bully

[mcvancleave]

About a month ago I introduced one of my males to my female tank. After five minutes in there he followed one of my females around the tank and when he got her cornered he bit her back leg and began to do what I would call an alligator roll. She sustained what I would classify as a possible loss of her leg. He took a 4cm chunk out of her down to the meat and it was not pretty. After I broke them up I began to doctor her. She healed nicely and her leg still works perfectly. I used peroxide and Neosporin all is well.

Now here are the questions!
What I want to know is there something that may have triggered this.

I had removed another male early that day.
Could there have been his smell or taste when she got licked and he thought male? Did she turn him down and he is a poor sport? Is he just a male I should keep away from my females?
Should I try to put him with the females again when I introduce a male at the end of the month or use a different?

 

[fallen_angel]

I'm not sure, but I think attributing it to the other male's scent is your best answer. Males together will fight to the death, so it wouldn't surprise me if the scent of another male triggered that type of response (but like I said, I can't be 100 percent sure on that).

When we put our new male into his cage, everything had been cleaned except for one of the rocks (which had the scent of another male who had lived in the cage a few days before), and the new male spent the first hour or so in the cage rubbing himself everywhere, but he didn't get violent with any females..

Maybe the difference between your story and mine is that the other male's scent was more fresh?

 

[mcvancleave]

what do you think should i try again or just for get about him. I could just remove the one female he attacked and add the other 2 i guess. I just do not want harm to my Leo it was honestly heartbreaking and was so mad at him i put him in time out in one of my 10 gallon tanks while i rushed to her help

 

[fallen_angel]

I would be afraid to put him back with the one he attacked. I really don't know if I'd put him with two other females, either. On one hand, it could have just been the other male's scent (and so removing that scent should fix the problem); but on the other hand, you can't be sure (maybe he's just a really agressive male)... Of course, I can't advise you to take a chance that could be detrimental to your leo. The best and safest thing to do right now is to keep that male alone.


But maybe other people with a similar experience can shed some light on this situation

 

[Golden Gate Geckos]

I agree that the behavior you described would indicate the male thought the female was another male. Be carefeul not lo leave the scent of a male on a female. I mad that mistake a l-o-n-g time ago, and it almost caused the death of one of my girls.

 

[malt_geckos]

wow, I didn't even think about this. We need to be more careful too! I will hold a male and then a female so thanks for the post! Fewwwww! Gotta make sure I don't do that.

 

[fallen_angel]

But so if you are removing one female from a tank with a male to put her into a different tank with a different male..what do you do to get the other male's scent off of her?

 

[daniellebluetoo]

ooo, I want to know too!

this is so funny that I found this post, I JUST lost a female due to this!

I had switched her from one male to another, and all was fine for a bit my male was breeding her and I checked on her the next day and WHAMO!... shes got a HUGE chunk of her tail bitten out. I treated the wound and separated her onto paper towel, all alone, she seemed lathargic, which I expected, but on the second day, she was belly up in her tub!

 

[fallen_angel]

I'm so terribly sorry to hear about your loss!!!!!

I guess it's really something that you don't think about at first.. I'm glad this subject came up, because I was clueless before. We put one of our females
(who is always around a male) into a different tank with a different male without realizing anything. Shortly after putting her in there, we changed our mind and decided that she should be in the other cage afterall. Luckily for us, she wasn't in the other male's cage long enough for him to smell her or get his smell all over her.

 

[david13]

im sorry to hear about that,
i vote for the males scent too