Ideas s'il vous plait.

[Aqua Andy]

Hi,

My keeping of Flame Tetra has unfortunately not been successful. One fish has assumed the Alpha male status and has bullied 4 fish to death and is currently giving his last "companion" hell. The deceased fish have all ended up swimming strangely before passing away, positioned like they are standing on their tail but still swimming horizontally. I think this is maybe due to the aggressive fish nipping and damaging their fins?

I have researched making my tank more suitable for them by adding more plants and hiding places to reduce the lighting but and but I wouldn't of thought that my current set up would be that detrimental to them. I have a 15 watt florescent bulb that I have on a timer set to 5 hours on two off and 5 hours on then twelve hours off. The rest of my set up details and pictures are in my signature.

My water chemistry has so far thankfully been good and I keep the temperature at 25c .

I'm now unsure what to do.

I'm thinking about getting a pair of peaceful fish to inhabit the open swimming space in my tank and getting a couple more Oto's.

Does anyone have any good suggestions?

Thanks for reading my post,


Andy

 

[OohFeeshy]

How exactly has he been bullying them? Biting their fins? Maybe isolate the bully in a breeder net for a while

 

[Aqua Andy]

He stays in the middle of the tank and when a fish gets close to him he chases them to a corner of the tank.

I don't think I've witnessed him actually fin nipping but he could be as I'm new to all this and I might just not be noticing it.

When I find a dead fish their tail fins have all been reduced in size. Maybe nipped pre or post dying?