White Skirt Tetra behavior

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R&L

Aquarium Advice Regular
Joined
May 1, 2006
Messages
63
Location
Mississippi
I have 6 WS tetras, 6 head/tail light tetras, 6 scissortails, 2 cory cats, 37 gal tank. 2 mos old. 78.2F, fully cycled Am 0 Nitrites 0 Nitrates 10.

The WS tetras only schooled for about the first 3 days and then scattered around. They will chase another WS away if one gets close to another and usually always swimming. Today i noticed that 2 of them are not swimming (1 on each side of the tank) Their heads are pointing upwards and just hover. 2 other WS will get close to one of them and stay side by side and the hovering one will try to run but the persuer will run to stay by it's side. (no nipping that i can see). If the hovering one leaves the area they are in and the persuer is not near, the persuer will corral it back to the area it left. If the 2 persuers get close to each other it looks like they are trying to nip each other. I noticed that the persuers will stay just to the side and toward the middle of the hovering fish.
I cant tell any diff in the fishes shapes, they all 6 look the same. one pair the persuer is smaller and the other it is larger.

Would i be correct in assuming that they are trying to mate or would ir be more of an agression thing. The WS's do not seem to be aggressive toward any of the scissors nor head/tails.

Thank you for your time.
 
It seems like the fish are possessed by the fish devil. :lol: IMO I think the persuees may have a ruptured swim bladder. I have had several fish in the past do this with Varying degrees of severity. The other fish may be hanging around the other in order to capitalize on the meal it is about to be presented, i.e the upwards pointers. I consulted a very good book on fish breeding named Encyclopedia of Tropical Fishes by Dr. Herbert Axelrod. This book has special emphasis on the techniques of breeding. It states nothing from its pages regarding this "upward pointing" behavior with regards to the skirted tetras. They just chase each other around until the deed is done to put a fine point on it. According to the book anyways. Hope that helps and I hope for the fishes sake that this is a common breeding practice the Dr. Axelrod was not familiar with. Good Luck :D
 
I don't know what it is all about. After 8-10 hrs, they are all back to normal. The Demons might be the right track.lol
 
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