I’m sorry little fish…

[Magnum Man]

it’s not your fault you were the smallest of the group that got sent here and put into this little glass box, where there is no where to run…

a fate that happens often, from neon tetras to silver dollars… most every schooling fish has a pecking order from highest to lowest, and being the smallest can’t be an easy place to be…

so we can do line of sight breaks, but those don’t often work on schooling fish, until they are at the point of being driven out of the school…

we can try to perfectly match their natural environment, but often the biggest thing missing is the size of the pond, so there is no place to run, and I’d suspect in nature, the outcast dies either from stress, or is eaten, being the smallest and alone… so in reality we are trying to keep something alive, that would be dead in it’s natural environment…

I’m watching a small tiger silver dollar, smaller than the rest, that was perfect when it came here and is either succumbing to what made it smaller in the 1st place, or is getting the bumps and bruises of diving for cover from it’s tank mates… I don’t know how to fix things for the little guy, short of quarantine…

and while he is not a cichlid, my previous extensive cichlid experience has shown, if I remove him, give him special treatment, and grow him larger, and in better health, he is likely to still be the bottom of the pack, if put back in, even a year or more later…

so what do you guys do with your “bottom of the pack” fish??? it seems if it’s a neon, smaller and the same as all the rest, they just die and you may not even realize it until later, but a larger and more unique fish, you tend to notice their ugly life…

I’m sorry little fish…

 

[GaryE]

It really depends on the species. If I have larger tanks, big groups and a good set up for tiny fish, it works. If the fish are aggressive, like those ones you have can be, you can't win without getting larger tanks or more tanks.

At least ten fish, maybe more if I can afford it. Never ever 3 of any species. And even with that, things can go awry. I try to choose species that don't pick at the subordinates in the pecking order. But like you, I try species not well known in the hobby and things can go wrong.