Nibbleing Neons

[Michael Buckley]

Our last guppy, we lost all the others to white spot, pop eye and ammonia before the tank cycled , is having his tail nibbled by our neons. I know it is the neons because they were always chasing him. He is a really cute little guy with a very large tail for his small size. Smaller body and bigger tail than any other guppy I have seen.

To stop the damage we put him in the guppy trap, meant for breading. That was about 5 days ago. Fingering the tank has finished cycling at the age of 6 weeks we got 4 more guppies thinking that in a group he would be safe. So after adding the new fish we let him out.

The neons were back at him again very quickly. So back in the breading tap for him.

How do we fix this problem, we don't want to loose another fish

 

[DarkEntity]

A 12 Gall tank seems very very small for the occupants you have in it. The problem could be over crowding. Have you thought about moving them to a different tank?

 

[Michael Buckley]

No going one inch a gallon, before I adding the extra fish it was right.

1 Gourami 1.5 inch
1 Platy 1 inch
5 Neon tetras 5 inch
2 Clown loaches 4 inch
1 Guppy 1 inch

= 12.5

I am trying to talk dad around a new tank, but I will take a month or two.

 

[WILDER]

To fix the problem rehome the clown loaches that tanks way to small for them.
Its overstocked and that why they are picking on one another.
Gourami and guppys don't get on.

 

[Tommy Gunnz]

The 'inch per gallon' rule is, IMO, totally outdated and applies to such a limited situation that it can be thrown out all together. It ONLY applies to small fish with a body type similar to neon tetras and so the gouramis do not count along with the clown loaches. In either case, the 'inch per gallon' rule (or general rule of thumb) applies to a fishes' POTENTIAL size and not current size. Clown loaches may be the exception to the rule since they are such slow growing that many people can get away with them in a smaller tank for quite a while, but certainly not that small of a tank. They are also schoaling and need to be in a group of at least three to five or more. Another reason this rule is not all that great is because the principle behind it is how quickly a fish can dirty up a gallon of water, thinking a one inch fish takes about a week or so to require a water change if kept in one gallon of water. Some fish make more wastes than others (probrably noticable by how often you see the gourami trailing a string of waste compared to the neons, even though this is not a true judge, but just an example) and you have to keep in mind that in your 12 gallon tank, you cannot fit 12 gallons of water with the substrate, decor, and fish displacing some of it.

I would agree that the tank is overstocked and the reason behind the aggression and stress. I would also be surprised that you can keep the water quality at its best for any more than a couple days to a week.

Keep in mind that no one is trying to be rude or mean and it is hard to 'hear' the true meaning behind people who can only type out words rather than say them. It is understandable that you stocked your tank this way and it isnt always your fault, but reducing the number of fish as well as limiting the kinds of fish in a tank will help you a ton. You should try to stick to the 'rule of three' and search for the exact same info or ideas in three, totally unrelated, sources of information before taking it as a fact. If you had done that, you would have been able to stock more wisely...at least in my opinion.

 

[ant0]

you'll need 100 gallons for the clowns, they get to ~6 inches sometimes larger. They also grow quite quickly, so either take them back to the store or rehome them, quickly. Poor guys in a 12 gallon