Tetra Bullying Help

[kitty__kat]

Hello
I have recently bought a tank. With the advice of the people from petsmart, i waited about 2 days before adding fish into my tank. It was a 5 gal tank. after those two days, i sent my husband to buy a male betta fish since i read up on them and they seem like easy enough fish to start off with, but instead he bought two tetras and two black mollies.

the people from petsmart told us those two fish would be great together. so i looked up the fish online and found out tetras are schooling fish, and mollies need to be in a 1 male to two female ratio. i looked at my mollies and they appear to be both males. One of the males picks on the other. also, the mollies seemed to steal all the food from the tetras and generally dominate the tank. the tetras looked terrified. the petsmart people called the tetras "red tetras".

So i went back to petsmart and bought three more "red tetras" and one dalmation female molly. now the tank was overstocked, so we bought another tank, which is 20 gal. the black mollies took no interest in the dalmation molly, and the dalmation molly died. i tested my water at petsmart and they told me that the water was ok. so i returned the dalmation molly.
my husband went out and bought to more tetras and two female dalmation mollies, in hopes that the two black mollies would stop fighting, and so that there would be 7 tetras together, so they would feel comfortable in the tank. this is when he read on the sign that they were "red minor tetras".

then we experienced a huge problem. the 7 tetras have become more agressive to the rest of the mollies. it came to the point that the tetras killed one dalmation molly through constant attacks and pecking. she died of some mouth fungus infection. so we returned the dalmation mollies and kept the black mollies, figuring they were hardy.

we went back to petsmart and got the water retested, and the water was fine. there are both live plants and artificial ones in the tank, and there is one arch/cave thing in there for hiding as well.

now, the tetras seem to be quarrelling among themselves, (which i found out is trying to set a hierarchy) but they also seem to be bullying the mollies as well. the two black mollies have forgotten about their fights about male dominance and are now hiding together from the tetras. they either hide inside the plants or behind the filter. if the mollies are pooing, then the tetras will continually harrass them until they stop. if the mollies are hiding inside the arch or the plants, then four tetras will gang up on the mollies and attack them from there. the mollies are still eating because they usually sticck to the top of the tank, while the tetras hang around the rest of the tank.

so now, i really dont know what to do. the tetras harrassed the mollies to the point that their tail fins are becoming frayed.

help.

 

[Tuxyu3]

How long has this tank been running? Chances are it has not been cycled, read about this in the beginner section. Cycling involves growing bacteria in the filter to deal with fish waste, as i said there are further details on how to do this in the beginner section.

Do you still have the betta?
Does the red tetra look like this?:

Maybe this?

I am reluctant to say more without knowing more as i do not want to mis-advise you. One thing i will say is do not take the local fish shop at their word, they will say anything to get you to but stuff. Try to get your own (liquid) test kit.

 

[kitty__kat]

Its the top one. and i never got the betta. he liked the mollies and tetras better.
its been about 4 weeks since i got the tank.
ive been trying to get around to get a test kit but to get the full test plus the ammonia test costs quite a bit, so ive been holding off on it for a bit.

 

[Tuxyu3]

That is a Serpae Tetra, known and noted for being bullies and fin nippers.
To be honest if i was in your position i would return the tetra's in order to get some more peaceful ones, maybe diamond or black phantom tetra's. Although you will eventually get new tetra's if you follow my advice i would also advise to hold of for now because of reasons i will explain.

I need to know a couple more things.

Have you cleaned the tank yet? If so, how? (please explain the whole process you went through) How often?
Have you cleaned the filter? If so, did you clean it in tap water or old tank water?

As i said previously you need to build up beneficial bacteria in the filter to take care of fish waste, it is a fairly lengthy explanation so please look in the beginner section for more information.
If the tank is not cycled you need to do large (70-90%) water changes daily replacing the water with fresh, temperature matched and dechlorinated water.

 

[kitty__kat]

I have not cleaned the filter yet, apart from the the part that takes up the water from the aquarium to the filter because dead plant material keeps getting stuck onto it (the mollies keep chomping on the plants and ripping them up in the process)\

for the tank cleaning, all i really did were water changes, five of them so far.
first i would get water from the tap into a bucket and let it sit with water conditionor/declorinator solution thing.
then i took another bucket and attached a siphon thing, which was called a gravel vacuum on the package
then i 'vacuumed' the gravel to remove fish waste and uneaten food, while battling with the tetras, who tried to eat everything being sucked up. they became so adventurous that i narrowly sucked them up a number of times.
after that, i scooped in the conditioned water from the bucket into the aquarium.
i did that pretty much every 5-7 days.

 

[Tuxyu3]

Ok, it sounds like it is better than i thought. If you have gone this long without touching the filter media you may be ok. Never clean out the filter with tap water, always use old tank water so the good bacteria i mentioned do not die from the chlorine in tap water. It is best if you try to get the new water around the same temperature as the tank before adding it (does not have to be too precise though). Keep an eye on the fish for a few weeks and make sure they seem ok, keep up with water changes and you should be ok soon enough. Please ask if you need any more advice on this matter.

Do you know what you are going to do with the tetra's? You will most likely never have a truly peaceful community with them in there.

 

[kitty__kat]

I contacted our local fish emporium (not petsmart) and they are willing to take the tetras in as long as they are still in 'good condition'.
Thank you.