Black Widows attack

jnr102030

jnr102030

YEA I NO!!!!
Feb 10, 2005
146
0
0
Scotland, UK
HELP!!!!! :eek: I have had 2 black widow tetras 4 about a week and the other one has start attacking the other on. It has shredded its fins and has made the otha fish turn pale and scared. I think it might die help me plz !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
black widow (or black skirt) tetras are wonderful fish, I have a school of them too. I think they need a lot of space, however. how big is your tank? if you have room, I'd get some more widows. (remember they grow to about 2" when mature). I have 6 of them in my 10gallon tank and physicaly they are healthy, but behaviouraly I can tell they want more space. a 20 or 30 gallon tank would be nice for them.
separate the injured fish for now so it doesn't get further injured or stressed. put 1 teaspoon salt to each gallon of water in its hospital tank (if you don't have another tank, a bucket with heater and airation is fine), and it should heal very quickly. My tetras ripped each others fins very badly in the past, but with salt in the water they heal astonishingly fast!! your tetra should be fine, I think the salt prevents infections but I'd still keep an eye on it.
also, these fish do turn pale, but its nothing to be alarmed about. mine are usualy pale during the day, and dark at night or after they've been hiding in a shady spot for a while. also when they are stressed it will happen, but most of the time it's nothing to worry about.
 
i had similar problems with my serpaes.. in pairs they attacked eachother. i bought 3 more and they are fine now in a school of 5. other hobbyists tell me that these tetras need to be schooled (5 or more).. you will see them establish a pecking order..

how big is your tank? if it is too small, maybe return one of them

cali
 
Another vote for adding a few more to even out the pecking order, right now the dominant fish only has one other fish to dominate. If you add more, than he will have to divide his attention between more targets, and overall each fish will get pestered less. Make sure if you do get more that they are all about the same size, as that also keeps them from picking on each other.

As to healing the fins. As long as there is still some fin on the fish as in the nipped parts haven't reached the body, the fins will grow back if you can get him to stop being attacked.

Remove him to another tank, add lots of cover, or get more targets for the aggression.

As to salt. Salt would be added to prevent fungus, which can sometimes take root in an otherwise stressed and injured fish. I've never used salt for nipped fins though I know how it works.

This is all provided the tank is large enough for more of them.

--Mia
 
black widows are notoriously nippy and having only 2 when they're a schooling fish doesn't help. You need at least 5-7 of them. Because Black widows are so aggressive and nippy I would suggest 7 or more of them.
They're so pugnacious that they're one of the only tetras you can safely keep with pirahnas (in a larger tank of course).
 
cdawson said:
black widows are notoriously nippy and having only 2 when they're a schooling fish doesn't help. You need at least 5-7 of them. Because Black widows are so aggressive and nippy I would suggest 7 or more of them.
They're so pugnacious that they're one of the only tetras you can safely keep with pirahnas (in a larger tank of course).
Click to expand...

really? when I got mine I was amazed at how parana-like they were, from the way they looked to the way they ate! I think mine are really paranas in disguise... :rolleyes:
 
Another reason that it might be pale is because they tend to loose their color as they age. Mine where always chasing each other around for about the first two weeks and then they settled down and are very peaceful now.
 
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