One of three gerbils declanned - what to do?

[catandgerbillover]

I have three male gerbils. Two are around 10 weeks old and the other is my older male, Lambert who is around a year and a half. On Wednesday I got home and both the babies were covered in blood. At first I thought Lambert was the aggressor and took the two babies out and left him in the tank momentarily. Then as I was observing the babies in a play pen it was kind of looking like Aiden(one of the babies) was acting aggressively. ie. squeaking at Voltehre whenever he came near. I then cautiously put Lambert in and Lambert and Voltehre were fine together but when Lambert went near Aiden, Aiden squeaked at him too. I decided that Aiden was the actual aggressor and put them in a split. Aiden on one side and my other two boys on the other. This seemed to be working for around 24 hours.

I tried to hold each of the other two up to Aiden in turn to see what he would do in our hands and after sniffing them he went to bite their neck and that was when I was absolutely sure he was the problem. The other two have been sleeping together still and seem like they’re okay. Last night, Aiden started to start treating to climb over the split, it was after this that I checked it was aggression by holding Lambert and him up to each other and saw it was definitely aggressive. I put extra wire in his way and made sure he couldn’t get through but he kept trying, climbing up to the top and chewing the bars. I’m going to be out of town for the next few days so I decided after reading a few posts on here that it was better for me and all my boys to put Aiden in a 10 gallon by himself and leave the other two in my original tank.

Aiden has been pacing on and off and showing signs of stress since I put him in the 10 gallon. I really want to know how to fix this because it looks like he’ll be in there for a foreseeable future. Im not planning on getting Aiden a companion because I really don’t have the space and I just had that problem with Lambert after his partner passed and this was the result. Im planning on getting a topper for the 10 gallon but I don’t really know how to move forward with this.

Can I ever reintroduce Aiden to the other two? What if when Lambert dies? Could I introduce Aiden and Voltehre after that? Can Aiden ever be happy by himself with just me and my family and friends giving him attention?

I really just need reassurance that I’ve done the right thing. I know it’s likely my fault for introducing a piece of wood that had some strong smells in it(it was a platform that was in the cage with Lambert and his partner before he died) and that probably caused the declan along with too many neat boxes. I just really need some advice. Thanks in advance.

[Markpd]

Unfortunately a 10 gallon tank (even with a topper) is too small even for a single gerbil (and that was the case even with the old tank size FAQ from 2007), so that'll be partly why he's stressed out, though of course the recent declann will be a major factor too (even though he was the aggressor). JFYI, this is our current tank size guide - gerbilforum.proboards.com/thread/35492/which-size-tank
He really needs at least a 20 gallon tank with a topper in the longer run.

Generally it's recommended that once blood has been drawn that a re-intro shouldn't be tried as it has a high risk of failing.
I do remember reading a single case (in the short time I've been here, just under 2yrs), where someone tried some months later anyway, and, in the short term at least, it seemed successful. But AFAIK we never heard back from them in the longer term.
Personally, if I were you I wouldn't try to re-intro Aiden to the other 2, you might even break their bond too and end up with 3 isolated gerbils!
Is it possible that when Lambert passes in a couple of years or so (presumably) that Aiden and Voltehre would have forgotten their fight in their younger years? Maybe, but we simply don't know really as we just don't have the data. Not to mention that would leave him alone for a long time, this leads onto your next question.

Could he be left alone and be ok? Maybe, but seeing as he is so young, the odds aren't good in the long run.
This is unfortunately a common dilemma when 2 pups are intro'd to an adult, it's seems to be fairly commonly reported that they declann before the older gerbil passes (but that doesn't help you now!).
So if you can't/don't want to chance intro'ing a new gerbil to Aiden, then I guess you're just going to have to 'suck it and see'.