I’ve been observing what i believe is fighting between my black skirt tetra. I originally had 4 in a 40 gallon with other fish but I did more research and decided to put them in their own 20 gallon long tank so i could add 2 more. I transferred the original 4 around 4 days ago and added the new ones a day ago. They all seem to be adapting fine except one of the new additions. It seems to be isolating itself and attacking (?) others that try to get near it. I did get it from petco which I know isn’t the most reputable place to get fish but my other local fish stores near me didn’t have them in stock. I do believe it has a weird swimming pattern so maybe it’s injured but I’m not 100% sure. Should I add more decor so they have more hiding spots and such or do I just let them be? Also i saw what seems to be a missing part of one of my originals tetras fin, could it be this new fish? Should I be concerned?
Black skirt tetra fighting?
- Thread starter luci333
- Start date
Welcome to AC luci333.
I'm sorry you're having problems with your skirt tetras but introducing new fish can have issues as you've seen. I'm guessing the new tetras are a bit smaller than you older 1s. The smallest can be picked on sometimes. Do you have decor like plants (real or fake) to break up the sight lines? That can help.
Are there any changes to their behavior after a few days? It can be just a matter of time...or maybe an illness? What are you seeing interaction-wise now?
A 20 long is a bit small for skirts, females can grow to 3 inches; males 2.5.
What fish do you have in your 40g? It might be time to rearrange your tanks if that's possible...
Tell us more please & post pics if you can. We'll try to help
I'm sorry you're having problems with your skirt tetras but introducing new fish can have issues as you've seen. I'm guessing the new tetras are a bit smaller than you older 1s. The smallest can be picked on sometimes. Do you have decor like plants (real or fake) to break up the sight lines? That can help.
Are there any changes to their behavior after a few days? It can be just a matter of time...or maybe an illness? What are you seeing interaction-wise now?
A 20 long is a bit small for skirts, females can grow to 3 inches; males 2.5.
What fish do you have in your 40g? It might be time to rearrange your tanks if that's possible...
Tell us more please & post pics if you can. We'll try to help
Yes i do have various fake plants and one small real plant, i have also planted betta bulbs and are waiting for them to grow. To this days they still seem to be fighting although this changes when I feed them, they all come out of their hiding spots and don’t chase each other around as much. I do agree that having 6 tetras in a 20L isn’t the most responsible thing but I got them with my other fish and I didn’t do much research about them at all and now have to deal with the consequences so I did what i could to give them all more space. In my 40 breeder I have 3 wagtail swordtails (2f, 1m) 5 pearl danio, and 6 cherry barb.
Well, I'm going to suggest you move the cherry barbs & (if you have a tight lid) maybe the pearl danios to your 20g long. I haven't kept swordtails but they seem a better size match to the skirts. Just an idea if the skirt aggression continues. With 2 tanks you have some options
they seemed to have calmed down a bit and i recently did a water change which seems to have “brought them together” but if the issue doesn’t get any better in a week or so i will definitely transfer the cherry barb to the 20 gallon, thank you for the suggestion!!
