Danio Bullying?!

[deannaerin]

Sorry, I posted this in the Tropical Discussion before I figured out it should probably go here. Thanks for your patience in dealing with newbies.

Anyways,
So I wake up to find my biggest Danio barely swimming and sulking in the corner and my smallest Danio picking on the other one too! He would chase the other one around and around the tank, and then stop and try to chase that one, but he's injured that one. All of my tetras are fine and schooling in corners while all of this is going on. I mean my smallest danio was being ruthless, I didn't know what to do so I took him out and isolated him in a 1 gal (it's all I have for a isolation tank) I thought about isolating the biggest Danio because he was really injured, but the smallest danio would just injure the other one. No one is bothering him, they're all pretty shocked from what just happened I'm assuming. I'm at a loss for what to do here. Obviously I added the most Melafix possible to the water, but this is my first time dealing with anything of the sort.

For reference I have a 10 gallon containing 3 long-finned danios, 3 phantom tetras, and 1 albino cory cat

My cory cat hasn't even noticed a difference. The fish don't really care about him at all, so he's fine. I'm just not sure what to do.

 

[WILDER]

Danio shouldn't really be kept in less than a group of six. But not sure about long finned danio's.
Corys shouldn't be kept in less tha a group of 3.
Tetra's should be kept in a group of six.

Can the injured fish still maintain is balance in the water. Can you describe his injurys in more detail.

 

[deannaerin]

Danio shouldn't really be kept in less than a group of six. But not sure about long finned danio's.
Corys shouldn't be kept in less tha a group of 3.
Tetra's should be kept in a group of six.

Can the injured fish still maintain is balance in the water. Can you describe his injurys in more detail.

Yeah, I realized I messed up the stocking for my first tank. I got caught in a cycle of ####ty knowledge local fish stores and I didn't do enough homework.
The injured danio is trying to swim more and not cowering in the corner since I took out the aggressive one. He can't swim that well, looks like one of his fins might be damaged, he lost his beautiful coloring, and there's a red spot where his fin might be injured? No one is picking on him at all in the tank, he's just trying to swim, all the fish are doing their own thing trying to recover from my smallest danio going ballistic (the only term I could use to describe it) and chasing the one almost to death and working on the other one. It took me at least 5 minutes and a TON of patience to net him. Did I do the right thing by taking the aggressor out?

 

[WILDER]

He's damaged his swim bladder or his fins causing the fish to not maintain its balance to well.
The red spot do you mean patch, Does it look like bleeding bemeath the skin.
Being pale can be stress.
Hows the fish breathing.

 

[deannaerin]

He's damaged his swim bladder or his fins causing the fish to not maintain its balance to well.
The red spot do you mean patch, Does it look like bleeding bemeath the skin.
Being pale can be stress.
Hows the fish breathing.

It sounds exactly like what you're describing. His balance is terrible. It looks like he might have a bit of bleeding underneath the skin. He's breathing fine, it looks like, as of right now. I had to do a water change though because trying to catch that danio rustled up a lot of debris from the plants and made the water terrible and there was something wrong with my filter, so it wasn't doing it's job too well. I got it working alright and did a water change, so I need to give it a bit before I judge anything. From what I CAN see, it sounds like exactly what you said. Is there much I can do other than what I'm doing? All the fish are keeping to themselves, thank god.

 

[pippoodle]

the smaller danio could have been a male , when the female is full of eggs (usually larger than the males) the male will chase her and chase her getting her to lay - this can damage their swim bladders
thats why it's better to keep them in larger groups cos then there is more females so the males attention isnt on just one fish and it sort of even out a bit

 

[deannaerin]

the smaller danio could have been a male , when the female is full of eggs (usually larger than the males) the male will chase her and chase her getting her to lay - this can damage their swim bladders
thats why it's better to keep them in larger groups cos then there is more females so the males attention isnt on just one fish and it sort of even out a bit

What do I do now? He was chasing both of them, so does that mean both of them have eggs to lay? God, I feel so retarded.

 

[pippoodle]

the smaller danio could have been a male , when the female is full of eggs (usually larger than the males) the male will chase her and chase her getting her to lay - this can damage their swim bladders
thats why it's better to keep them in larger groups cos then there is more females so the males attention isnt on just one fish and it sort of even out a bit

What do I do now? He was chasing both of them, so does that mean both of them have eggs to lay? God, I feel so retarded.

he could just have been chasiing the other one cos it could be another male
has any got a rounded belly ?

 

[deannaerin]

the smaller danio could have been a male , when the female is full of eggs (usually larger than the males) the male will chase her and chase her getting her to lay - this can damage their swim bladders
thats why it's better to keep them in larger groups cos then there is more females so the males attention isnt on just one fish and it sort of even out a bit

What do I do now? He was chasing both of them, so does that mean both of them have eggs to lay? God, I feel so retarded.

he could just have been chasiing the other one cos it could be another male
has any got a rounded belly ?

The two bigger ones do. The one chasing is the smallest one, no rounded belly.

 

[WILDER]

Hows the fish now.
Sorry had to go earlier to cook the tea.

 

[deannaerin]

Hows the fish now.
Sorry had to go earlier to cook the tea.

About the same. He's not straining to breathe, but still struggling to swim, it looks like one of his fins is torn somehow in some way I didn't notice before. He's just kind of swimming around slowly then rests in the corner and repeats the process over. I think he'll be okay, but I don't know what to do with the aggressive one, who is still isolated in the one gallon. It's certain if I put him back in the community he'll probably end up killing both of the danios. When the aggressive one was in there, he was under so much stress that he wouldn't move and I thought he was dead when I got up this morning. I have to go to work soon, so I'm not quite sure what to do.

 

[WILDER]

I would rehome the aggressive danio.
The poorly danio could do with isolating if he's struggling to swim as he will get weak and die.

Is it possible to find something to petition the tank in two halfs.

 

[pippoodle]

Hows the fish now.
Sorry had to go earlier to cook the tea.

About the same. He's not straining to breathe, but still struggling to swim, it looks like one of his fins is torn somehow in some way I didn't notice before. He's just kind of swimming around slowly then rests in the corner and repeats the process over. I think he'll be okay, but I don't know what to do with the aggressive one, who is still isolated in the one gallon. It's certain if I put him back in the community he'll probably end up killing both of the danios. When the aggressive one was in there, he was under so much stress that he wouldn't move and I thought he was dead when I got up this morning. I have to go to work soon, so I'm not quite sure what to do.

leave him in the one gallon until you can get some more danios - increase the numbers upto at least 6 - 8 would be better , make sure they are of similar as the others , then once they have been introduced to the tank , re introduce the in aggressive one 12 hours later and watch the tank - see what happens

 

[WILDER]

Thought long finned danio's need larger tanks than 10 gal, so adding more is really out of the question.