White skirt bullying

[libertybelle]

Hey guys, my turn for a question!

So I just noticed one of my white skirt teras (glo tetras, technically) has gotten very skinny and is being bullied a bit by the other skirts. Now these fish were not all the same size when I bought them (a little over 2 months ago approx.) and without noticing I bought this fish which was quite a bit smaller than the others already. But until the last week or two that hasn’t been a problem. There was a few days of pecking order nipping on addition to qt and the again moving to their current tank but no major aggression. Now the bullying seems to have gotten bad enough that it doesn’t come out to eat quite so readily. Its not a constant thing but it is more than it used to be. I’ve tried occasionally to intentionally overfeed right before a water change and it will eat eventually. I hadn’t noticed how skinny it had gotten because I have thick plants and I guess it was usually hiding.

Haven’t seen any aggression from the barbs, despite their smaller school size.

Conventional wisdom for this kind of aggression is adding to the school size but I’m unsure if that will make things worse in a relatively small space (29g.) This tank will likely be upgraded but not for a while so I don’t want to push things. That said, I have decent lights, a ton of plants and it’s overfiltered so parameters are quite stable. I do 50% water changes weekly and nitrates stay fairly low (5-15 if I delay water changes a bit.). No ammonia or nitrites.

Additionally I wanted to ask, is there any value in using something like ParaGuard in case the skinniness is not just an effect of being bullied away from food and is some kind of parasite? There are no external signs of parasites that I can see. Haven’t seen any white stringy poop, etc. But I’m unsure if the flattened head is a symptom that should be raising red flags for me or if it’s effect of malnutrition.

Additional tank details are in my profile.

So there’s a couple unknowns here. Is it skinny because it’s ill and that’s making it a target (in which case medication of some kind might help.)

Or is it skinny because it was already the runt and the others are outpacing its growth due to food competition. In which case adding to the school some similarly sized fish and/or overfeeding a bit before water changes might help more.

It’s hard to get a pic due to aforementioned hiding but here’s the best I could manage. I welcome your thoughts!

 

[libertybelle]

Well I just noticed white stringy poop and I don’t have a quarantine tank. So I guess I need to get one and treat with paraguard. On the plus side: (see below... I definitely married the right guy)

 

[Skai]

I'm super envious of your relationship, I'll have you know. Also, quarantine definitely sounds the way to go if the poop is now looking off too

 

[BBradbury]

Hello Lib...

Bullying can be resolved by heavily planting the surface. My White shirt fish seem to hang out in the middle to upper areas of the tank. I keep some in a 45 gallon tall. If you introduce some Pond weed, Water lettuce and Hornwort, they will grow quickly floating close to the light source and provide hiding places for the bullied fish. When the floaters get thick enough you can float some Java fern in there too. Floating plants help fish in general feel more comfortable.

B

 

[libertybelle]

Lol @skai I think it makes him feel better about the money he spends on his own hobbies balances the scales!

@B thanks, I’ve actually done all that. Water lettuce covers like 70% of the surface (lol, 100% when I haven’t pulled any out in a while ) ; Val reaches the surface and covers about 50% of the substrate and clumps of hornwort and moss throughout. I worry more about my fish having places to swim than hide!

 

[libertybelle]

Unfortunately the little guy didn’t make it. I’m not entirely surprised, he was so thin by the time I realized he needed treatment. And in retrospect paraguard was probably not the best choice since it was likely some kind of internal parasite. The good news is none of the other fish in the 29 are showing any signs of problems.

So now I’ve got a lovely six gallon tank to decide what to do with. At the moment it’s just hanging out semi planted with a single ghost shrimp and an algae tab to keep bacteria fed. The smart thing to do would be to keep it available as a quarantine tank but it’s so dang hard keeping an aquarium unstocked!

I’m highly tempted to one day move my dwarf shrimp into the 6 and add a betta to the 10. If I need a quarantine tank again the betta could always vacation in the 29g for a while (with a breeders net or divider If needed, of course.) But that would mean catching a bunch of shrimp ... again. So many baby shrimp....

 

[Skai]

Unfortunately the little guy didn’t make it. I’m not entirely surprised, he was so thin by the time I realized he needed treatment. And in retrospect paraguard was probably not the best choice since it was likely some kind of internal parasite. The good news is none of the other fish in the 29 are showing any signs of problems.

So now I’ve got a lovely six gallon tank to decide what to do with. At the moment it’s just hanging out semi planted with a single ghost shrimp and an algae tab to keep bacteria fed. The smart thing to do would be to keep it available as a quarantine tank but it’s so dang hard keeping an aquarium unstocked!

I’m highly tempted to one day move my dwarf shrimp into the 6 and add a betta to the 10. If I need a quarantine tank again the betta could always vacation in the 29g for a while (with a breeders net or divider If needed, of course.) But that would mean catching a bunch of shrimp ... again. So many baby shrimp....

I have that same problem with quarantine tanks... if there's water it needs to have fiiiiiisssshhh!

 

[libertybelle]

And this is on my bedside table. So it’s just sitting there ... staring at me. With its one little ghost shrimp... begging for inhabitants.

I mean the easy thing to do would be to add a betta to the six. But I feel like I’d be looking at him wishing I’d given him more space. The shrimp don’t care if they’re a little cramped as long as their water chemistry is good.

Now I’m tempted to go out to my local big box store to try to buy their “display” betta. A little white fella that’s in a tiny little half gallon tank and has been for months. He’s older so might not mind not having as much room to swim and it would be an upgrade from his current digs.

I know, logically, that ‘rescuing’ fish from poor care only rewards poor care and I should probably find someplace that houses them better to support. But it is such a temptation. I do understand the cups and in ‘local big box’s’ defense the water always looks great in there and I don’t think I’ve ever seen a dead fish. So they’re doing what they can for a temporary holding solution.

I just feel bad for that display betta who is stuck in the tiny tank for the long haul. In some ways I almost prefer the cups to tiny display tanks. The cups most people understand are a temporary measure. People see the tiny display tank and think ok, so that is the ideal environment for this fish.