small black harlequin rasbora

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Flower1982

AC Members
Sep 29, 2005
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Pennsylvania
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Jess
I've had my 6 black harlequin rasboras for over 6 months (it's probably closer to 8 months) well there is one that is smaller then the rest and it's color looks faded compared to the others. I've noticed that sometimes the others will chase the smaller one. the small rasbora seems active and is eating well. it doesn't seem that he's grown much since i bought them.
All the other rasboras have grown and their colors are nice and bright. What can I do to get the small guy to grow more and to get more color? The rasbora's are in my 29 gallon tank with 3 bleeding hearts, 1 platy, 1 male betta, and a small pleco. They all seems to get along and haven't seem any aggression in the tank except for the other rasbora's chasing the smaller on every now and then. Is the smaller rasbora just the runt of the group?
 
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Flower1982

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Sep 29, 2005
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Pennsylvania
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Jess
I mainly feed them new life spectrum. I sometimes feed them frozen brine shrimp and frozen bloodworms but I haven't fed them that for a long time.
 
vwill279

vwill279

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Oct 7, 2011
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Milwaukee, Wisconsin
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Vanessa
2 scenarios and it might be hard to tell which it is.

1.) He is of poor color and they are chasing him because there is something wrong with him (disease, deformation, some inherent weakness, omega personality). Many social species will ostracize one of their own if there is something about it that will attract predators or weaken the gene pool. I had this happen with a comet. She was not formed quite right and never grew and the other goldfish would beat her up if she tried to hang out with them. She only lived about a year.

2.) He is of poor color due to stress and they are chasing him due to a limiting factor in space, water quality, not enough hiding places. Make sure there is are plenty of hiding places and that your water quality is where it needs to be. You can also try increasing the number of fish to diffuse aggression. Most social species do better the more you have.
 
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