aggresive danios?

[twokats]

i have recently started a 20 gal tropical freshwater tank. i read in my book "the simple guide to freshwater aquariums" that zebra danios make great cyclers. so i put in four.

when the lfs guy said it was okay to do so, i added three neons, with the intention of adding another three after several days. the danios have been all over them since i put them in and have managed to kill one. now they are chasing and harassing the remaining two.

is this normal behavior for danios? i have kept them before, love them, and from all i can remember, don't recall them being aggressive. what's up?

edited to add--they are even harassing each other...the whole tank seems to be very much in turmoil and i expect a bunch of dead fish very soon...yes, yes, it's true--i didn't do a fishless cycle, and i have since learned the neons aren't great for cycling a tank, but what is up with these danios? help asap, before they all kill each other.

note--ammonia and nitrites have all remained within safe bounds, have done one 20% water change at the first sign of a rise in anything...

 

[elgecko]

I had zebres for a while. They are very active fish. I did get rid of the one's I had because of that reason. They always chased my hatchets around. I do not think there are aggressive, just very active.

 

[Tetratastic]

My Dad has a small school of zebras in his tank, though at one point all but one died, and he had to wait for the LFS to stock more zebras before he could get more. During the wait, the zebra got so lonely he started schooling with my Dad's school of neons, even hanging out at the bottom of the tank to be with them. He never hurt any of the neons, but he did play with them some. Dad has kept zebras and neons togther for years, and I don't think there has ever been a compatability problem with the two.

Maybe you could put in some (or more if you already have some) plants for the neons to hide in? I get barnacle clusters from my LFS and they love to hangout in these as well.

 

[wiEngineer]

I've completely stopped stocking danios in my community tank for this very reason. When I first set up my large community tank, I put in some blood-finned danios and some Leopard danios. They harassed the heck out of everybody (especially the neons, since they are so small) and eventually I had to yank them out.

I've instead stuck with tetras of various flavors and had much-better luck. I now have about 10 different species of tetras in my tank, along with a beta, 3 clown loaches, a hillstream loach, 9 bumblebee gobies, 4 swordtails, 4 honey-dwarf gouromis, and a male black-molly I adopted from a co-worker. Everybody gets along great.

DOWN WITH DANIOS

 

[CharlyBaltimore]

Danios are famous for harassing fish to death. That's why I don't keep them anymore.