Medusa behavior query

[NCE12940]

My female has taken to odd behavior in the evening / night. She dashes / thrashes around the tank, throwing sand & plants everywhere. I can hear (but haven’t seen – lights all out) her splashing around at the top of the tank as well. I don’t have photos of dorsal view but there are no white spots, lesions, etc. During the day she mostly hangs out near the male’s cave. He’s usually either facing out of the cave or outside at the cave entrance. Is this some sort of funky Medusa courting behavior? She’s obviously not starving and shows no external signs of disease or parasites. Besides the male, there are 4 baby BNs in the tank and nobody else exhibits this behavior. I siphon at least every other day and replace around 2-3g of water (14g tank) and there are no signs of anything but normal poop. They’re fed various Repashy gel foods, Ken’s sticks, fresh veggies & occasional frozen bloodworms or daphnia. Two ceramic caves and 2 pieces of Malaysian driftwood in the tank, which has been running for 7 months, which is how long I’ve had the Medusas. (Photos were taken last night just as she started her evening spazout routine.)

[krazyGeoff]

Never seen anything like that, perhaps she is just spring cleaning, as the vegetation may be being interpreted as something that should have drifted away???

[NCE12940]

I like that, spring cleaning! So far this evening she's been quiet. Maybe she's annoyed that I re-did her arrangement (the wavy substrate in the tank photo was her doing). The tank's right next to my laptop so I have a pretty good idea of their daily activities. I do have a split photo period and during lights out period during the day she doesn't exhibit this behavior, just at night. I forgot to mention that these guys are wild-caught so who knows what goes on in their little brains!

[krazyGeoff]

I think they live in a mainly rock type environment in the wild?

[NCE12940]

That could be but it's odd that it's taken her this long to react. In the near future I will be moving them to another tank with rocks. We'll see!

[tagamasid1023]

Had a pair of these before. Kept them in a 20G Long with sand and lots of wood. Thought they weren't pretty happy with the setup so I transferred them to a 55G with a trio of other plecs and lots of tight places (good for their flat profile) and rocks. Moreover, the tank was in a pretty dark part of the room which eventually made them happier. Never turned lights on as there were no plants in that tank.
Keep off the light and you'll see them come out and eat zuchini even in daylight.
Good luck.

[NCE12940]

Thanks for the info. They'll be moved to a 20L when I get it set up. They are a bit less reclusive since I've put 4 baby BNs in with them. Of course the BNs are out and about 24/7 and nothing fazes them.