What do you do with a mean fish?

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cliffy1203

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Jan 10, 2012
Messages
26
Location
Long Island, NY
Hello aquarists,

Two days ago I added a male and female pineapple swordtail to my 46 gal tank, which already had sunburst platys and mollies.

Much to my dismay, the male pineapple swordtail is torturing all the other fish; he is nipping at their fins and bullying them all, to the point where all the other fish spend most of their time hiding in one remote corner of the tank.

So, what do you do with a nasty fish? All the rest of the fish we getting along so peacefully. I'm pretty upset about it, because I got the fish to watch them and relax, and now the swordtail's bullying is stressing everyone out (including me).

Thanks for your advice and help, :fish2:

Bill
 
Does your LFS accept returns? That would be the easiest way to fix the problem. I've heard of people removing the fish into another tank or a QT for a "timeout" period. I guess in theory that could work but I bet he/she will be back at it again in no time.
 
My store didn't accept refunds, so I adopted my Gourami out to someone I knew who wanted a fish with a large enough tank; you could always do that, and quarantine him until then
 
If it continues to bully the other fish, you can try re-arranging the decor.

If not you have three choices.

1. Return back to an LFS. Even if the one you got it from doesn't accept returns, another may accept it as a rehome ... they may / may not give you a credit.

2. A QT timeout tank, it's worked for some ... but no guarantees.

3. Give it a one way trip down the porcelain whirling water slide!!

.... OK maybe not. I'm certain choice 1 will work-out for you.
 
I have two sharks that got into it pretty bad, I put a divider in the tank. Then rearranged the entire tank and took the divider out. Since that (touch wood) there have been no issues. I think they were fighting over the same sleeping spot.
 
Actually, I was going to return the swordtails to the LFS. So I bought a long net and tried for an hour to catch them. However, my tank has lots of places to hide and there is no way I'm going to get even one of them in the net without taking most of the tank apart. And my tank has a plastic thing on the top that crosses the whole tank. Every time I try to get the fish in the net, I hit that piece and the fish gets away. Ugh!

I have given up for now. The Swordtails have won.

Bill
 
@jcolon: where on Long Island are you? I'm in Selden and I got all my fish from AquaHut in Coram. Have you ever been there, and what did you think?
Bill
 
Maybe get some more fish. More activity to distract the mean one. Get a couple bigger fish like rainbows, or gourami maybe he will chill out if he isnt the big bad boss anymore.
 
i've tried the timeout tank before. it generally works well with fish that get a little too excited, but not with nippyness or aggressiveness. for example, i tried flaring my old betta, and he got super excited and started chasing my fish. put him in a timeout tank with all light blocked out for 10 minutes and put him back in. model citzen. male bolivian ram was beating up on a younger female... tried timeout tank again. he went off and pouted for a whilt, but the next day he was back at it.
 
If you have a good relationship with your LFS you can take them in and exchange them for another fish.

Once I had a male Gourami that was so mean he was chasing everyone in the tank. Starting to damage fish too.

He left... didn't make it to the LFS either. :whistle:
 
jcolon said:
If it continues to bully the other fish, you can try re-arranging the decor.

If not you have three choices.

1. Return back to an LFS. Even if the one you got it from doesn't accept returns, another may accept it as a rehome ... they may / may not give you a credit.

2. A QT timeout tank, it's worked for some ... but no guarantees.

3. Give it a one way trip down the porcelain whirling water slide!!

.... OK maybe not. I'm certain choice 1 will work-out for you.

Lol porcelain water slide
 
cliffy1203 said:
@jcolon: where on Long Island are you? I'm in Selden and I got all my fish from AquaHut in Coram. Have you ever been there, and what did you think?
Bill

I'm in the valley-stream area. I've never been to AquaHut ... I prefer Pets warehouse in Carle Place.
 
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