Need Some Advice

[lilfishie]

well i moved my 4 girls in to the 15 gallon a week ago today, over the last 2 days one of the smaller of the 4 has been showing stress stripes. she is still swimming around happily enough, any ideas on what could be stressing her? and should i seperate her although all i have is a bowl is use to the guppies which is less than a gallon so wouldn't like to put her in there and a beanie box which i use when ajusting new fish, i have absolutley no space or money to get her a seperate tank. and if i do seperate her and it helps if i tried to re introduce her i am afraid that Ruby would kill her, she although not the dominate one is definatley most aggressive. so what should i do, i don't want her to live a stressful life.

Thanks for any help

 

[sandie66]

I guess then you don't have any money to buy a couple more girls? They may be "abusing" her if she is the littlest one in there. Maybe putting a few more in there would help.

 

[lilfishie]

no money or space for anymore in there either, i haven't seen them bullying or chasing, but Ruby is a mean lil girl when she wants to be although she normally only squares up to Rose who flares then off goes Ruby, there is another girl in there the same size and fish smaller than her, i just don't know whats stressing her out

 

[MaddieJ]

My girl gets stress stripes when the tanks light is turned on, unfortunately they need to be turned on in the mornings so not much can be done to stop this. Is there anything like this that could trigger her off?

 

[lilfishie]

not that i can think of, but she shows stripes all day so if it was just in the morning when i turned the lights on i would understand, might try find a few household ornament type things or take some from other tanks and rearrage the whole tank see if that helps

 

[Dibari]

Do you have alot of plants and caves for the little girl to hide in to avoid being beaten up on?
4 is the absolute minimum on females you can have to avoid real danger, but the ideal number is 6+.. Are you sure you can't have one or two more girls? If your tank is 15 gallons, two or three more even, should be fine in there. THey're only 2 bucks a pop.
If not, you may have to seperate them or your little girl could be stressed to death by the constant haraunging.

 

[lilfishie]

tank doesn't have a lot of hiding places but i'm working on that as we speak, before when they were in the 3 gallon they got on so well though, tanks is overly stocked, think i have double the amount your supposed to but i keep up with the maintainence so it isn't so bad, as for adding more, i am absolutley skint and the LFS doesn't have any at the minute, will find some fish friendly stuff around the house and steal some from other tanks see if that helps at all, i really only want to seperate as a last result because of the size bowl she'll have to go in

 

[Dibari]

They are in a 15 gallon right now, though, right?
Oh, and I should warn you, you can't remove just her if you only have 4. Leaving three would cause carnage, you'd have to seperate every last one of them if you have such a small sorority..
Do try to give her more hiding places and perhaps you could use some scalding water and clean out an old glass/cup that you could give her as a cave?

 

[Maxsmom]

I agree with Dibari... I think you need lots of hiding places... and you could add another girl or 2 or 3... The more girls... the more the aggression is spread out. And I'm not sure if there's really truth to this... but I understand that ODD numbers are also good??? Like 3,5,7... something to do with the hierarchy...

 

[zoekin8yg]

I currently only have 3 girls, they are fine, its not a rule that you cant do it, they can fight and squabble however many there are. They just tend to be better off with more to spread the aggression. Mine stress every now and then, especially if they chase each other about. Id put more hiding places and lots of plants if you dont have lots of plants.

 

[lilfishie]

well i have moved her out, the bowl holds a bit more than i thought its 1.5 gallon with a good few inches left, she is my lil desk buddy so i can keep an eye on her, she is happily exploring at the moment although theres not a lot in there just a dinosaur ornament bare bottom, will add some gravel at the weekend from one of the other tanks once she has had time to settle. will keep a very close eye on the other 3