Hi all! I'm new to the site, but have been keeping fish for years.
I am in the process of moving out of California, and am staying with my sister until I get my own place. I have ponds in CA, which are stocked with gambusia because I have a problem with raccoons, and smaller fish are harder for raccoons to catch. Gambusia are also very tough, tolerate a lot of conditions, and devour mosquito larvae. I caught 10 to bring with me, and set up a 25 gallon tank for them. The tank has rock formation decorations (plastic) and lots of live plants - amazon swords, java ferns, cardinal plants, and dwarf hairgrass. I decided on a Fluval U2 submersible filter, which is up toward the top of the tank to put the outflow jet where it will create a surface current. The filter is rated for a 30 gallon tank.
My sister loves neon tetras, so added 5 (which I later upped to 10 total). She also added 5 fancy male guppies, and I added 2 corydora cats and a black khuli loach to clean up any food off the bottom. I initially worried that the gambusia could be aggressive, but they show no signs of aggression toward anyone, and actually schooled with the neons. When I added the second batch of 5 neons, I also added 5 Starfire Red GloFish danios, which took to the top of the tank to school with the fancy male guppies in the filter current. Again, I watched for any signs of aggression, and everyone got along fine.
A couple days later my sister added 8 GloFish tetras (4 green, 4 purple) and 4 Galactic Purple danios. Then everything immediately went downhill, with fish disappearing or turning up with their tails eaten completely off. The culprits are the purple danios - they chase and attack everything, and in the course of three days, they have killed 10 fish. Several more have severely nipped tails and body wounds. Is this aggression normal?
I know the tank is most likely overstocked, but I'm meticulous about tank maintenance. Please don't beat me up on this point. I just need to know if this level of aggression is normal for GloFish danios so I can decide what kind of action to take.
I am in the process of moving out of California, and am staying with my sister until I get my own place. I have ponds in CA, which are stocked with gambusia because I have a problem with raccoons, and smaller fish are harder for raccoons to catch. Gambusia are also very tough, tolerate a lot of conditions, and devour mosquito larvae. I caught 10 to bring with me, and set up a 25 gallon tank for them. The tank has rock formation decorations (plastic) and lots of live plants - amazon swords, java ferns, cardinal plants, and dwarf hairgrass. I decided on a Fluval U2 submersible filter, which is up toward the top of the tank to put the outflow jet where it will create a surface current. The filter is rated for a 30 gallon tank.
My sister loves neon tetras, so added 5 (which I later upped to 10 total). She also added 5 fancy male guppies, and I added 2 corydora cats and a black khuli loach to clean up any food off the bottom. I initially worried that the gambusia could be aggressive, but they show no signs of aggression toward anyone, and actually schooled with the neons. When I added the second batch of 5 neons, I also added 5 Starfire Red GloFish danios, which took to the top of the tank to school with the fancy male guppies in the filter current. Again, I watched for any signs of aggression, and everyone got along fine.
A couple days later my sister added 8 GloFish tetras (4 green, 4 purple) and 4 Galactic Purple danios. Then everything immediately went downhill, with fish disappearing or turning up with their tails eaten completely off. The culprits are the purple danios - they chase and attack everything, and in the course of three days, they have killed 10 fish. Several more have severely nipped tails and body wounds. Is this aggression normal?
I know the tank is most likely overstocked, but I'm meticulous about tank maintenance. Please don't beat me up on this point. I just need to know if this level of aggression is normal for GloFish danios so I can decide what kind of action to take.