Mad Zebra's

[morey]

Hi all,
new to this forum, in fact new to tropical fish keeping !

Initally brought a tank for my 7 year old sons birthday, but now i'm hooked !

Been building the 40ish litre tank (quite small) over the last 5 months. did a empty cycle, then been adding a couple of fish every two weeks or so.

the first batch were Zebra danio's, (x4). now 10 fish in total, (4 zebra's and three pairs of tetra varieties), also a couple of cleaner shrimps being busy in there.

over the last couple of weeks the zebra's have gone mental ! (even more active than they were), they've starting scrapping ! so bad that one has now lost an eye ! (but doesn't seem to be that concerned about it !)

The other fish are not effected and are largely ignored by the manic zebra's

should i be worried ? any suggestion s?

 

[WILDER]

The reason this is happening is the tank is to small for zebra and tetra's, danio fish are very active and they need room to move so do the tetra's.
I would try to rehome the danio if you can.

 

[morey]

I must admit, i wish i would of got a bigger tank now, but the instructions that came with the tank and the instructions we received from the aquarium shop was that the tank would hold 12 to 15 fish of this size. (i have ten and was going to stop there)

In fact they recommended the danio zebras as the first bunch as they are the easiest and most resilient for newly set up tanks.

duff info from the shop ?

I've also heard from another source, that the danio zebras tend to fin snip if there's LESS than 6 in the tank. could this be true ?

 

[mybutterflyiris]

In fact they recommended the danio zebras as the first bunch as they are the easiest and most resilient for newly set up tanks.

This is actually good advice. Alot of times when I set up a new tank I'll thow in some zebra danio's as test fish to make sure the tank is functioning properly.

I've also heard from another source, that the danio zebras tend to fin snip if there's LESS than 6 in the tank. could this be true ?

This hasn't been true in my experience with them and I've been keeping fish for a long time. Generally, I had 3 together in a 20 to 25 gallon tank along with tetras or angel fish. They are surface dwelling fish and like to school together. They would sometimes pick at each other, but not very much or very aggressively. I've never heard of one's doing what your doing. Sounds more like something giant danios would do.

My advise is that make sure when you are stalking a tank that you do it according to the behavior of the fish.... some top dwellers, some mid-range dwellers, and some bottom dwellers. This allows you to have more fish without over crowding. The larger the fish the more space it needs to itself, and males are more territorial than females.

 

[barbiedoll]

but Zebra danios need a longer length of tank than you are providing them with - am guessing that is why they are fighting. They are so active and really like to swim up and down the length of the tank, where as many other small fish tend to mooch around in a smaller area.
An lfs will often suggest Zebra danios to cycle with fish and they seem to survive the experience. But yes, it was duff info for a tank your size. they are after a sale, remember! It's not just the number of fish you can keep for any tank, it is the length of the mature fish compared with the surface area and then it is how the fish like to live, where in the tank, how do they behave, what company do they like, tolerate etc.

keeping fish is learning everyday and you are doing great by coming here to this forum. There is masses of info pinned and you can find it through browsing or searching. the guys on here have thousands of years experience between them too. But read lots - don't just take one person's view as what works for one person in their set up with their local water supply, substrate, rocks, planting etc may not work for another.

After all we all know someone whose 'grandfather smoked 80 a day from age 12 for 90 years and had never a day's illness in his life.......' B)