Who is the fin nipper?

[meanjean]

20 gallon with the following (in order of most recently acquired):
male guppy, female preggers guppy added last week
male platy, two female platy (one preggers)
six pristella tetras
four black skirt tetras (the really long flowey ones)
one zebra danio, most likely female


Came into work this morning, and someone has been nipping at my female guppy's tail--I suspect is was the lone danio. The danio is from the original set up, and hasn't bothered the black skirts before

Any suggestions? Anything I can do?

 

[Julie-Anne]

im not sure but id say the black skirt tetras would be your problem watch them for about an hour or so and youll see for sure which ones doin it

 

[discus4everGrl]

watch em during a feeding. Sometimes the worst comes out at feeding time.

 

[preggoguppo]

i would bet my life it's the zebra danio... when i started to read your post the first thing that came to my mind was a zebra danio, before i even read what you have in your tank! that's because last month i was having the same problem in my tank.... i had the zebra danio for over a year (since christmas of 2003 when i got my tank) he was the only original i had in my tank, but it got to the point where he was constantly harassing all my fish (especially during feeding)... it got to the point where i would look in my tank and see no fish because they would try to hide from my zebra danio! i kept my lights off for days hoping it would calm the danio and maby it would be "so dark" in the tank he couldn't see the other fish to harass them! i finally realized this is nuts that i cant even enjoy the tank, and by keeping this one fish, made all 7 of my other fish VERY stressed and unhappy... so finally i did what i should have, i took him to my local fish store as a "donation"... i replaced my danio with friendly fish *thumbsups

 

[kll1221]

i would say the black skirt tetra is to blame.

 

[Stevie]

Id go with the tetras aswell.

 

[meanjean]

Well I watched...

Well I watched for quite a bit off and on yesterday, and the danio is chasing the two guppies the most, but at some point yesterday afternoon the female guppy either aborted or gave birth because she is no longer preggers. I haven't seen any fry. the danio was also chasing the platy yesterday as well.

Could the danio have been chasing to stress her out for a fresh snack?

 

[revfred]

IMO the black-skirted tetras.

 

[Seleya]

My black-skirts are pretty mild mannered. They are pretty much the biggest things (besides my pl*co) in a community tank and they just chill. Danios, otoh, can be pretty nippy ime. I'd suspect the danio.

 

[namukoby]

My black skirts chase each other, but leave everyone else alone - including the betta that was with them for a week. I'd be surprised if it were them.

 

[meanjean]

AND THE WINNER IS...

Did some extensive watching--the zebra danio is the culprit! It's chasing mostly the remaining guppy and a couple of the pristellas, I may separate it for the weekend so the others can get some free non-chased time.