Harlequin Rasboras fighting

[DeirdreHoyle]

I have 6 harleys in my 25 gal community tank and two of them have started acting aggressively toward each other. They hover in one place side by side and then nip at each other...it's very weird. Should I be worried? So far there are no ripped fins or anything, it just looks dangerous.

 

[Luananeko]

A fellow Portlander! How long have the fish been together? If they're new, this sounds like normal "establishing the pecking order" behavior. If it's just started up when they've been together for a while (longer than a week), then it's possible you have one turning into a bully. In that case you can either make the school larger so the aggression is diffused, or rehome and replace the aggressor.

 

[DeirdreHoyle]

A fellow Portlander! How long have the fish been together? If they're new, this sounds like normal "establishing the pecking order" behavior. If it's just started up when they've been together for a while (longer than a week), then it's possible you have one turning into a bully. In that case you can either make the school larger so the aggression is diffused, or rehome and replace the aggressor.

Yes I love finding people on here from Portland! Which fish store do you go to??

The fish have been together for a long time, maybe 5 months. Do you think getting 2 more would Be enough to diffuse the situation? I don't have another tank to move the bully to

 

[Luananeko]

World of Wet Pets is my usual one, but I make the trek out to Wet Spot whenever I can because I love their selection and quality Wet Pets is better for selling plants/rehoming fish for store credit though.

2 more will definitely help, 3 would be even better. While 5-6 is the minimum for most schooling fish, they tend to have the most natural displays/behavior at around 8+ (from my experience). It's likely that these are the two males, so having a few more females and possibly another male to distract them from each other should help rework the hierarchy dynamic.

If that still doesn't work, you can take the bully (or both bullies) to World of Wet Pets and they'll find a new home for him for you. The alternative would be to leave them be and run the risk of someone getting stressed/harassed to death

 

[DeirdreHoyle]

I love the Wet Spot it is amazing that's my main store! I just discovered the World of Wet Pets last weekend they were great, I got two GBRs from them. I started out at the Tropical Hut but once I went to the Wet Spot I was hooked lol.

If I got two more harleys I would be at 8 so I'll try that and hopefully it helps. I also want some kuhli loaches but I don't want to be overstocked so I only want to get a few more harleys

 

[Luananeko]

Never heard of Tropical Hut, but I'm also not over in SE Portland much. There's also Pets on Broadway that's just down the street from Wet Spot and can sometimes carry extra equipment on the rare cases that Wet Spot is sold out/doesn't carry what you're looking for. I grabbed some T5HO Actinic bulbs from them that I couldn't find anywhere else

Oooo, Kuhli's are fun For some reason I thought you only had 5 Harleys not 6 (getting different threads mixed up in my head I guess), so yes, 2 more will hopefully calm them down a bit.