hi all

one of my tetras spends a lot of time
in a tight little area between the filter
a plant and the side of the tank

he is one of two males, there are six females
is this a bad balance?
(not on purpose, just what the lfs gave me)

the other male harrasses him all the time
and he gets tetchy with any fish that comes over to his
little area

he comes out to feed and occasionally spars
with the other male in open water,

i dont know if there is anything in it
as the dominant male just chases all the fish
a lot of the time anyway?

im also thinking the dom male is just a bully
but it could be just messing about,
apparently silvertips are into chasing around

any thoughts?

rgds

4

Hey 4
only a thought but have you tried increasing their number , might spread out aggression / chasing and give the poor fella a chance to swim about, but it just may be a timid fish, i've in the past bought fish to have them disappear for months on end and just when i had given up on them being alive they come out strong and fit after taking a looooooong time to settle in... could be the case here he's just getting settled in slower than the rest and not confident yet??? maybe add more cover to entice him out i've found the more cover in the tanks i have the more confident the fish are as they can hide more easily if bullied / threathened or startled

Hope this helps,
Seamus

I second Seamus on this one,some of my fish at the start were v quiet but eventually grew out of themselves and are now active. Interesting also,I read somewhere recently that tetra's despite being shoaling fish can indeed have a hierarchy. Indeed for example if you have 10 neons for 6 months in the tank and you then introduce another new neon,it wont always shoals with the other 10. I could be wrong on this one,Im looking up tetras at present the present week (See my other post) and I was surprised to see this behaviour. Ultimately I wouldnt get too worried about the lonely fish,introduce a few more and some plants / hiding places and it will probably curb the aggression somebit.

Gavin