Bully among 5 Glofish Tetras

[NadiaG]

Hi, I am pretty new to this forum and fish keeping in general. I have a 10gal cycled tank with a SA Bumblebee catfish and 5 glofish tetras. They have just survived an ich attack and it is finally gone and they are back to being healthy and happy. Very proud of myself, I did not loose a single fish!!!

Now I have 2 electric green tetras, 2 moonrise pink and 1 sunburst orange. And the orange one is an ultimate bully! These fish are schooling and they do swim together a lot but there are times, when they are in "resting" mode, the orange bully sits in the middle of the tank and does not allow other guys to swim by or even to come out of their hiding spots.

He is very hostile to the rest of them! What can I do? Do they see color? maybe he needs a buddy that is also orange..? If that is the case, I'm afraid to overstock... Please help.
Thank you very much in advance

 

[absolutangel04]

First of all, welcome to the forum!
So, I apologize for being the bearer of bad news, but unfortunately, 20g long is generally the minimun tank size suggested for these fish. I know that many stores will tell you they are fine in small, tanks, and there are tons of small tanks sold as glo-fish tanks. Unfortunately, these fish do better with more space and do not thrive in small tanks like 10g. The aggression you are seeing could be two-fold. For one thing, sometimes active fish get nippy in small spaces. That is not uncommon. When dealing with various tetras, I personally have seen better schooling behavior and less in-fighting with 6 or more instead of 5. I had rummies who only schooled as a group of 6 or more because there were 2 that would otherwise bully the other fish. I am not postive why, because other times schooling fish do fine in smaller numbers. Some of it is up to the specific tank, specific fish, and their genders.
Congrats on beating ich. That can be tough for new fish since they are already stressed from moving. For your issue, I recommend looking into a larger tank if you are able to. If not, I suggest re-homing the bully fish. Adding more fish is not good idea here IMO.
Again, I am sorry that I do not have better advise. But, there are still plenty of options for you. If you cannot get a bigger tank, I suggest looking into re-homing all the fish and looking into different options that are able to thrive in a 10g tank.

 

[NadiaG]

Thanks for the advice, and don't worry for bringing up 'bad' news. I am considering all options and the more I know the better choices I can make.
I am thinking about an upgrade to 20g but not earlier than a month...

 

[absolutangel04]

Honestly, if you keep up with your water changes, they will be ok in there for a bit while you try to upgrade. Bigger tanks have soooo many more easy stocking options.
But, I still suggest re-homing the bully fish. Fish can stress each other to death with bullying and harassing.
One thing to try before that though, try rearrangeing the decor in the tank when the lights are off at night. It changes territorial boundaries and sometimes helps to dispel aggression and bullying. Unfortunately, it is often a temporary fix. But, worth a try.

 

[NadiaG]

Yes, I did rearranged decor and added more stuff for them once I stopped treating for ich, the meds had tendency of coloring...
I also try to do frequent partial water changes due post ich maintenance, so I think they like that. Will keep it up to see them thru till upgrade ?

 

[sixtyfou]

I did the same thing. I have a 10g tank with Glofish. I have to say the glofish gear is such a scam. I wouldn't suggest anyone buy the gear with the glofish label. It's all made by tetra and available for less without the name. It's also not the right gear for the fish. Which is the reason I bought it. Just a couple of days ago I set up a 30G. Once it gets rolling all the glofish are going to get move to it. I've found that people always seem to be giving away tanks. I've also found a ton of cheap gear on craigslist. Whole 75 to 100 G setups for less than $100.

All that said, I love the fish themselves. We've been having so much fun with them.

Are you sure this is a case of bullying, and not spawning behavior? Is the trouble maker thinner and smaller than the rest? He might be a boy trying to get some

 

[NadiaG]

I agree Glofish gear is way too expensive.For that reason I didn't but a glofish tank setup, I just got the blue light for $20 and 1 decoration for a buck.

As far as bully case vs spawning... I am not sure, you got me thinking now... I have hard time telling sex. He is slimmer and I always referred to it as him. But wouldn't he pick one female to hit on? Or try to swim with others trying to get some instead of just being territorial and not let anyone to come across his space?

 

[sixtyfou]

I'm still new to this myself, but I plan to bred my tetras, and I've been reading about there spawning behavior. I don't think tetras pair up the way danios do. Is he swimming around the others? I think there are some videos online of black tetras spawning. These glofish tetras are black tetras.

 

[NadiaG]

Interesting... Thanks for the input! I will have to check those videos out. I would not mind to breed them too. Although, I think it is harder with glofish cuz the genetics were changed. But I heard it is still possible.

He swims with others at feeding time and when I shut the lights off for the night and when I do water changes and siphon the gravel they all together, chasing the vacuum tube as I move it. Funny guys! But at other times he sits in the middle of the tank and doesn't let other fish to go by, chasing them away or cornering them

 

[sixtyfou]

They lay smaller batches of fry, but they still breed just fine. I've got a bunch of the danios going. The tetra are next on the to do list.

I'm doing this for educational purposes, and I will not be selling them so I am not violating the patent.

 

[NadiaG]

I hear ya!