Chasing glofish advice

[micaelaarnold]

I'm new to the forum and am in desperate need of advice. As I've mentioned before, I just recently was granted four glofish zebra danios for Christmas with a five gallon tank. My boyfriend had asked a worker at petsmart how many gallons they need and she gave him the five gallon tank. I know schooling fish and their space are a touchy topic and right now I am saving up for a twenty or more gallon tank. One of the drawbacks is my room just simply is not large enough to hold this large of a tank.
My concern is that three out of the four are being bullied, chased (violently), and nipped by the larger orange glofish. I'm not sure whether it is male or female, but I have my bets on male. He has one kept in a small cave and the others split into separate corners. What seems to be weird to me is that they school perfectly one day, and are terrorized the next. Besides getting a larger tank, do I have any options without getting rid of the fish all together? Any thoughts?

 

[Mebbid]

There's not going to be much you can do at all without rehoming the bully fish. It's far too small of a tank for anything but a betta tbh.

 

[micaelaarnold]

There's not going to be much you can do at all without rehoming the bully fish. It's far too small of a tank for anything but a betta tbh.

I have read that it is too small. I feel like I'm an awful owner for putting them in such a small tank. If I rehome him, will another one rise to become the "dominant" one?

 

[micaelaarnold]

*update
I took the bully fish out the other three are swimming happily at the top of the tank again. If nothing happens between these three, I'm taking the Orange one back to petsmart. Are there any precautions I can take besides the larger tank in order to avoid this happening again?

 

[Mebbid]

I have read that it is too small. I feel like I'm an awful owner for putting them in such a small tank. If I rehome him, will another one rise to become the "dominant" one?

It's okay, it's petsmart's fault that it happened.

It's possible about the dominance, it's hard to tell.

 

[micaelaarnold]

It's okay, it's petsmart's fault that it happened.



It's possible about the dominance, it's hard to tell.

Thank you for your help!

 

[micaelaarnold]

I made a discovery, after relocating a fish and losing another because it got injured from the relocated fish. My glofish became aggressive only when the black light is on, when it's off they school perfectly, even though there are only three of them. They don't seem agitated or anxious, they school and swim calmly and excitedly like danios do. Before, I had the light turned on for 12 hours and off 12 hours. Now, I might just Leave a window open by the tank or have a lamp by it and turn the black light on moderately when I want to show someone their glow. Did anyone else figure this out? Or is it like something I should have known that everyone else knows?

 

[Coursair]

Part of the nipping can be misplaced schooling behavior. With larger groups, which you already know won't fit in your tank, any aggression is spread out throughout a larger number of fish.

That is why most small social species are recommended in groups of six or more.

It used to be recommended to sell a minimum of three fish. When people would try to buy three tiger barbs inevitably one would kill the other two. But if they were put into a 30 gallon or larger and given a group of six or more they were perfectly peaceful. They would do a little chasing amongst themselves , but little to no damage.


Sent from my iPhone using Aquarium Advice

 

[Luananeko]

As someone with a 36g bowfront tank set up specifically for GloFish, I can promise you that it's worth making the space for a proper sized tank for them. Their behavior in a 20g long or larger tank with a proper sized school is like night and day. They need at least 30" in tank length to really get up speed and plenty of school mates (8+ ideally) to chase to burn off their energy. Without a proper outlet for their energy, it tends to turn to aggression and fin nipping, usually severely enough that their target(s) die from stress.

As to whether the black light is partially to blame, do you have an actual black light, or just a blue LED setup? If the 5 gallon tank was specifically sold as a GloFish tank (I'd like to strangle whichever marketer made that decision, as none of the GloFish line is suitable for that size tank), then it has either a blue LED light or an actinic light, not an actual black light. If that's the case, the lighting shouldn't be the issue... I run both an actinic T8 and a hidden Marineland LED strip set on blue mode on my GloFish tank and haven't had any aggression issues. If it's an actual black light, then it's possible that the lighting is aggravating them and causing the already tense situation (of too small a tank and too few tank mates) to flare up.

Either way, it's really worth investing the money and space for a proper sized setup. They can really look fantastic when you ignore the crappy marketing and set a regular tank up with the same type of decor yourself Here's how mine looks right now:

 

[micaelaarnold]

It is a regular blue led from the glofish tank package. Your tank looks awesome! I am saving up for a larger tank right now, but as I am a junior in highschool taking college courses, it's difficult to work at the same time. I do part time nannying but this mostly only provides enough for gas money. As of right now, there is nothing I can really to (though I wish I could). Thank you both for your advice! I might just be looking for small answers to an even bigger problem. I will invest in a larger set up as soon as I can, and the hopefully I can start over and do it right.