Killer fish?

[grimlock3000]

First, check all the water parameters and make sure everything is in line. Sometimes, an ammo or nitrite spike can cause fish to get weakened and then they get picked on by the other fish.

Ok, according to their profiles every fish I have except for the Bala's are Peaceful community type fish. The Bala's come under the heading of semi-agressive (and I wouldn't have bught them if I had known). Never seen any of the beta's nip each other, yet.

"Peaceful" fish will generally assume that attitude in a normal environment where they have a lot of room and other fish like them. Your tank is very packed, and you will be looking at well over 100 inches of fish once they grow up. Also, many of your fish like to be schools of 6 or more so they calm down and feel comfortable. You have an overcrowded tank with a rainbow of different fish that feel out of place and as a result they will behave out of character.

Like cdawson said, you are likely going to have problems until the fish population thins out, your Bettas could be just the start, and ditching the Balas and moving the Gouramis might not fix it for good.

 

[cdawson]

Does your brother line seattle as well?
that's REALLY wierd man.

 

[sweetsuvvyb]

nah...this was when he was in eastern wa...the frogs would show up in the house...mostly in the bathtub drain, but occasionaly he'd come home to find that the oscars had gone to town on one of the poor things (can only assume they hopped their way into the tank...or perhaps that the roomate was feeding them to the fish...either way...ew).

The only frogs i've seen here in seattle have been at the pet store LOL

 

[dralarms]

First, check all the water parameters and make sure everything is in line. Sometimes, an ammo or nitrite spike can cause fish to get weakened and then they get picked on by the other fish.

you will be looking at well over 100 inches of fish once they grow up.

Like cdawson said, you are likely going to have problems until the fish population thins out, your Bettas could be just the start, and ditching the Balas and moving the Gouramis might not fix it for good.

All the water parameters are fine. Your calulator must be broke, I checked it and with out the "blue flame tetra's" (which I can't find a profile for), I only have 69 inches of fish at maturity. That's including 2" a peice for the "painted glass tetra's" don't have a profile for them either. If my lfs is correct my "blue flame tetra's" will only be 3", addint 9" to my total of 69 would only give me 78 inches of fish. Still over stocked but a long way from the 100 inches you claimed.

 

[ferret]

I think he was still counting the bala sharks, justmy2cents.

 

[silvi-p]

hi guys,
this is what we'd call fish soup.
the best to do is, take out the water with a pipette, add some spices and slowly heat it up!

can't anyone imagine a river or something? do you think in nature there are like 10 different species in one place? and only 2 or 3 each time? from dwarf gouramis to neon tetras? ever heard of "habitat"?

sorry if this comes over un-nicely. you've had ick - what do you suppose it came from? i can only imagine one cause, and that's stress! 55gal for 34 fish! it's not a inch/gal rule that counts. it's common sense a bit! all those guys who like to be in a school feel bad. all those guys who like to be really lazy keep being whirled around. things just stack up.

my suggestion: research a bit of what type of fish is from where, and try to stick to one region. if fish are present in more regions, the better. try to get one school of fish (talking about 12-15fish, not 7), some for the ground and maybe some for the surface. so three kinds. and try to get info whether the fish you like are more the lazy sort or really lively, so you can add buddies that are the same.

don't get me wrong, everybody can do what he wants with their tanks.

it just amazes me how fish keep being bought for a sort of collection that is colorful and lively, instead of representing animals in their environment.

*shaking head* regards
silvia

 

[grimlock3000]

"Still over stocked but a long way from the 100 inches you claimed."

I had ther Bala Sharks in there, whoops. Earlier I had these totals (max lentgh X quantity):

20 10x2 Bala Sharks
9.5 4.75x2 Dalmation Mollies
15 2.5x6 Cori Cats
8 2x4 Painted glass (Yea I know but I had already bought them)
24 3x8 female Betta's
8 4x2 Rainbows
4 2x2 Dwarf Gourami
4 2x2 Bleeding hearts
10 2.5x4 Black skirt Tetra
4 2x2 Serphea Tetra's
4 2x2 Fan tail plattys (one of which looks VERY pregnate)
8 2x4 Cherry Barbs
-----
118.5 inches total, and with the combination of fish, you were asking for trouble, which you got.

Now, you are down/traded in 6 Bettas, both Sharks, one Cherry Barb, two Gouramis, but added in some Blue Flame Tetras I think...


9.5 4.75x2 Dalmation Mollies
15 2.5x6 Cori Cats
8 2x4 Painted glass (Yea I know but I had already bought them)
6 3x8 female Betta's
8 4x2 Rainbows
4 2x2 Bleeding hearts
10 2.5x4 Black skirt Tetra
4 2x2 Serphea Tetra's
4 2x2 Fan tail plattys (one of which looks VERY pregnate)
6 2x3 Cherry Barbs
9 3x3 Blue Flame Tetra
-----
83.5 inches, not including the snails. With good maintenence and fish selection, I do not think 80ish inches of a fish in a 55 would be a problem, but you will have 83 inches of drasitcally different fish that are not in large enough groups to school. Just a bunch of fish swimming around in tiny groups, probably not feeling comfortable... And it seems like everytime you have a problem, you just buy more fish shortly after.

 

[TankGirl]

I am kinda with Silvi-p on this. I have learned over the years that the tanks with the fewest problems are ones in which the fish are either all the same species or they are in groups with a few other groupings of fish they might encounter in their natural habitate (biotope). I know many, many people go with a broad community setup, and I do have a dwarf gourami in with SA fish, but this is a generalization. My dwarf gourami is quite aggressive, btw. As I accumulate more tanks I am finding myself setting them up as biotopes.

 

[dralarms]

OK, ok,ok. Beleive me when I say that I want my fish happy, I didn't mean to create an envoirment that was "unfriendly". Now with that said I have gone to "liveaquaria.com" and reasearched all the fish I have in my tank, the only ones that say anything about schooling size are the cory cats and it says 6 of them. Like I said before, I can't find anything on the "painted glass tetra", or the "blue flame tetra". If someone has a suggestion on which fish need to go and which fish need to stay I'll look at it and try to figure it out, I will say this, I probally won't be getting another tank right away but if some of these fish don't belong together I would like to know so that as they leave I won't replace them with the same type.

 

[TankGirl]

Sorry to be judgmental about your tank - it is not fair, and not helpful to you in this situation!

I think your barbs and rasboras will be fine together (btw, your sig does not list your tank inhabitants, so forgive me if I am confused about what is in there) but the small tetras really do so much better in larger groups, so get some more harlequins. You mention serpae tetras, and they are lovely but they are quite aggressive, at least for me. I have a group of 7 and they mainly nip at each other, leaving the other fish in the tank alone. The black skirts I believe are pretty mild mannered but they get lonely without a group. Get some more of those if you can and try to have more females than males. Cherry barbs should blend in nicely with these fish. I think if you have larger schools of the tetras and rasboras that would make a very nice, active tank, with corys on the bottom. Removing the larger individual fish (gouramis and balas) should change the mood in the tank quite a bit, and make it very nice.

 

[dralarms]

Took out my signature, felt like I was being attacked. The gouramis are in my 10 gal with my 2 zebra danios & 3 cori cats.

2 Dalmation Mollies
6 Cori Cats
4 Painted glass
3 female Betta's
2 Rainbows
2 Bleeding hearts
4 Black skirt Tetra
2 Serphea Tetra's
2 Fan tail plattys
3 Cherry Barbs
3 Blue Flame Tetra

Thansk what I have in my 55 gal. If you can figure out which fish go together I may be able to fix this problem

 

[Scottw68TN]

You were. Don't let it get you down, some people are very passionate about there fish and beliefs.
Heres my 2 cents:
The barbs need a larger group even though they are the more peacefull cherry barbs, lose the serpeas and any type tetras that seem overly nippy to other breeds of fish, and sharks (which I see are not listed now).

 

[dralarms]

The sharks are gone, and none of the tetra's are nipping, I had 4 barbs but 1 got stuck under a tank ornament. I think the gournami's might have gotten hold of it first. Thanks for the input.

 

[grimlock3000]

No one is attacking you justmy2cents, just trying to help. There have been multiple comments made about your fish load/selection/research in the past and they just slipped right by without being acted upon, then you ended up with a bunch of dead and relocated fish. A lot of time, people try to be helpful w/o hitting on the root cause. If it finally takes some people being blunt to get the point across, so be it. People can come off a little too blunt though :?

Also, if you are worried about getting replies you do not like, do not try things like telling people their calculators must be broke

 

[Scottw68TN]

Well I'm glad there not nipping but instead of 4 small groups = 12 It would be better to have 2 schools of 6. They seem fine but will not live as long due to the stress of less protection. protection to a fish is defined by the law of averages. If a small fish is alone it has about a 100% chance of being eaten when a big fish shows up. A fish in a group of 10 has a 10% chance. We know a big fish will probably not be added to the tank but they don't. They only know the survival skills they are born with. Safety is in the group!

 

[grimlock3000]

I would try to find fish that do not seem to be very active or ones that are aggressive towards others (even if they are not fin nipping, some will charge other fish when given a chance). Then create larger groups of the fish you have left.

When you check fish behavior to try to find ones that are ill behaving, try doing it after you have been in the room for a while, with the light on and later with it off. Fish behavior can change quite a bit when you enter a room, sometimes if you sit around for a while, they forget you are there and go about their fishy business which could involve chasing others around. Same thing with turning off the light, some fish will get very sneaky when the light is off and cause trouble.

 

[cdawson]

hi guys,
this is what we'd call fish soup.
the best to do is, take out the water with a pipette, add some spices and slowly heat it up!

can't anyone imagine a river or something? do you think in nature there are like 10 different species in one place? and only 2 or 3 each time? from dwarf gouramis to neon tetras? ever heard of "habitat"?

sorry if this comes over un-nicely. you've had ick - what do you suppose it came from? i can only imagine one cause, and that's stress! 55gal for 34 fish! it's not a inch/gal rule that counts. it's common sense a bit! all those guys who like to be in a school feel bad. all those guys who like to be really lazy keep being whirled around. things just stack up.

my suggestion: research a bit of what type of fish is from where, and try to stick to one region. if fish are present in more regions, the better. try to get one school of fish (talking about 12-15fish, not 7), some for the ground and maybe some for the surface. so three kinds. and try to get info whether the fish you like are more the lazy sort or really lively, so you can add buddies that are the same.

don't get me wrong, everybody can do what he wants with their tanks.

it just amazes me how fish keep being bought for a sort of collection that is colorful and lively, instead of representing animals in their environment.

*shaking head* regards
silvia

Here, here!

It's no wonder our hobby gets such a bad name sometimes.
My favorite is the 3 adult angel fish, 2 clown loaches, 2 mono argentus in a 10g and the guy is asking "what's wrong with my fish? They keep getting sick". I told the guythat he had too many fish in the tank and he was like "What're you talking about?! They fit in the tank!".

 

[TankGirl]

How is the situation in the tank now? If everything is going okay, which it very well might be, I would just leave things alone. My guess is that unless you have more tanks around the house, the stress of moving these few individuals back to the LFS where they may or may not survive is not going to accomplish much. I would think that the serpaes and the cherry barbs could be moved, because they are more likely to be nippy, if you do move any. The rest could really get along just fine together. It is personal preference. Over time you will find that there are fish that you really like and other kinds that you will not get again. Also, the mollys and platys sometimes (don't want to start an argument here..) have different requirements, like brackish and/or hard, alkaline water, so they catch my eye as being odd-men-out, but many, many people keep them in a community hodge podge setup, so there if they are healthy and happy there is no need to move them.

 

[dralarms]

How is the situation in the tank now? If everything is going okay, which it very well might be, I would just leave things alone. My guess is that unless you have more tanks around the house, the stress of moving these few individuals back to the LFS where they may or may not survive is not going to accomplish much. I would think that the serpaes and the cherry barbs could be moved, because they are more likely to be nippy, if you do move any. The rest could really get along just fine together. It is personal preference. Over time you will find that there are fish that you really like and other kinds that you will not get again. Also, the mollys and platys sometimes (don't want to start an argument here..) have different requirements, like brackish and/or hard, alkaline water, so they catch my eye as being odd-men-out, but many, many people keep them in a community hodge podge setup, so there if they are healthy and happy there is no need to move them.

Thank you, Now this is what I was talking about. Instead of telling to fix my problem you have given me somewhere to start. . Now for a question, I have a 10 gal, with the 2 dwarf gourmani's, 3 cory cats, and 2 zebra danios and 1 Rasbora's, it was originally gonna be a QT tank but, can I move the serpaes and the cherry barbs to the 10 gaa and move the cory's to the 55? Would that help my situation?

 

[TankGirl]

I think the 10-gal is overstocked right now, and I am really not trying to rain on anyone's parade, honest! I have kept a single dwarf gourami in a 10 gal with some cardinal tetras, and it was extremely tense in there. I finally removed the cardinals and they were very happy to be out of there. 10's are very difficult to keep stable, and that is a lot of fish, with not a lot of room to swim. I would think you could have the zebra danios in your 55, and go ahead and put the rasbora (harlequin?) in there too, since none of them will cause any problems in the 55, and the serpaes and barbs would be fine together in the 10, but I would not put anything else with them.

That leaves the dwarf gouramis. Hmm. They are one of my all time favorite fish because of their color, but I have trouble keeping them with other fish, except cories or plecos. If you are not attached to them you might be able to get store credit for them at the LFS, or I would try keeping them together in the 10, but not with tetras or barbs, which you could also get store credit for. Or, you could get a nice 12-gal Eclipse for the gouramis, and the 10 for the barbs and serpaes! (This is exactly how I wind up with more and more tanks, and how I got my handle!)