Which fish is a fin nipper?

[mitche8359]

I noticed that my sole remaining angel has what looks like to me some nips in the tail. Nothing drastic, tank goodness.

I'm wonding which fish in my tank is nipping. Not going to get rid of it but I won't get anymore of that species.

My tank has 10 neon tetras, 2 red tetras, 2 plecos and 2 cory cats, though the cory cats are new so they haven't had time to nip.

My guess is the red tetras.

 

[Somethingfishy]

From what I have read the Red, I assume they are the Red Phantom,

?

They are very peaceful and would not harm your Angel. Which pl*cos do you have and which corries do you have?

 

[mitche8359]

Hmmmm... judging from the picture, I don't think that's the type that I have. When I had four, one of them was pretty agressive toward the others.

I'll do a little surfing and see if I can't come up with the type of red tetra that I have. I really need to start getting the scientific names of the fish that I keep in the tank.

The corries are unknown as well. I call them spotted, but they have a line running down their boddies. Sort of like the panda variety but without the mask.

The plecos, are unknown too. Nothing fancy, not a sailfin or spotted or anything. Just a pleco..

 

[Somethingfishy]

I will try and assist where I can.

Is there a little more info than spotty and a strip on its back. I have looked so far at about 20 different types and have not found one that matches your description yet.

PS I still have another 50 or so to go?

 

[mitche8359]

Ok well the stripe isn't really on the back. There's a stripe on each side. Do you have a website that has a lot of different varieties of corys that I can look at? I'm off to look at the red tetras.

 

[mitche8359]

Ok here's the tetra - Hyphessobrycon serpae
Common name: serpae tetra

I'll try to link the image...

Write up says peaceful, but other than the plecos, nothing has been in the tank that could have nipped the fins. The damage was done before I added the corries.

Here's the cory that I have

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[loganj]

Are you sure the fins have been nipped? No sign of any type of infection? None of the fish you have mentioned are fin nippers. You can pretty much rule out the pleco and the corys. I think it's pretty safe to rule out the neons also...they aren't big enough to do any damage even if they tried. The tetras are about the only thing left. Hmm... Here's a question you won't hear often here or any other aquarium site. Are you sure you're feeding enough? Some fish (puffers for sure) will become more agressive if they aren't getting enough to eat. Just a thought....
Logan J

 

[mitche8359]

The fins look as though they have been nipped and are healing. I'll take a closer look tonight. I imagine that it could be the natural shape of the fin starting to come through. The angel is relatively young. Some of the long veil angels get really fancy tail fins, like the large one that recently died. Would be nice if that's the issue.

As far as feeding, they get flakes once a day and some days twice a day depending on the 18 mos old. Not enough to build up on the gravel.

A serpae tetra had ich but has since been removed from the tank. The other fish are looking good. So no direct sign of infection.

 

[mitche8359]

Ok, though the cory isn't likely the culprit, the species is Corydoras Julii

 

[mitche8359]

Actually I just read that the serpae could nip fins of smaller fish. Since the serpae is about the same size as the angel and they are the largest fish in the tank other than the plecos I wonder if the tetra isn't the culprit.

 

[jeffd902]

I had a Chinese Algo Eater take the dorsal and tail fin off of one of my first Corys. But I have never heard of Tetras nipping fins. I have 2 skurt and 3 Head-Tail light tetras in my tank also. The nipping stopped after I removed the Chinese. That Cory later died, so I replaced those 2 with a Betta. There have been no signs of fin nipping on the Betta.