Tail fin damage on my leopard danio

[Rummy]

I'm new to this hobby but am having success and a lot of fun.

About 8 months ago I started with a 6 gallon tank with neon tetras. The tank is doing very well but the more research I did after my first attempt, the more I was sure I needed a bigger tank.

I know have an established 55 gallon fresh water tank. It's been up and running for 4 months. It's fully cycled and I have added fish slowly. This is how it is currently stocked:

6 Danios (4 zebras and 2 leopards)
5 Glowlight Tetras
3 Praecox Rainbows (added two weeks ago)
3 Bosemani Rainbows (added two weeks ago)

The problem is with one of the two leopard danios. I started with the danios, then about a month later, added the glowlight tetras, then a month later added the Rainbows. Everything was going very well until yesterday... I noticed some serious damage to one of the leopard danio's tailfin. It's completely chewed up.

The danios ALWAYS chase each other around. Now that I've noticed the damage, I watched closely and a few of the zebras are completely harrasing this leopard and damaging its tail. The other leopard danio is fine.

Is this more or less normal or expected? The glowlights and rainbows are doing great.. very peaceful and just hang out.

I'm considering putting the damaged leopard danio in my 6 gallong tank with the 6 neon tetras to give it a break. Is that a good idea or no?

The parameters of my tanks are:
55 Gallon
pH 6.8
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 10ppm
Temp 78

6 Gallon
pH 6.0
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 15ppm
Temp 80

I've learned a lot from this site. Thanks!

 

[HN1]

Moving the injured danio is a good idea. Just make sure to slowly acclimate it since the parameters on your tanks differ. The best thing for any fin damage is clean water. Daily changes wouldn't be overkill and easy to do on a 6G. You may want to add to your schools eventually to disperse the nippy dominance amongst more fish. Good luck!

 

[happygirl65]

I completely agree, daily water changes will help your leopard regrow it's fins rather quickly. With aggressive nippy fish you often need a lot more of them to spread out the aggression so that one fish doesn't get picked on all of the time.

 

[Rummy]

Thanks for the advice. I briefly moved the leopard danio to the 6 gallon with the neon tetras but after 12 hours, the tetras were cowaring in a lower corner of the tank and completely being harassed by the danio so I moved the danio back to the 55 gallon.

I discussed it with my LFS and they too agree that if I increased the number of my danio school, it will help by not getting this little guy singled out. They didnt' have a supply of danios yet so I will go back shortly.

So far, he is doing much better. I change the water very regularly and even still, I stepped up the effort and his tail fin is growing back nicely. He's still getting chased but it doesn't seem as bad as before.

 

[atomiclord]

I find my group of nine is a good number. Plus I get tons of fry!