# An Aggression Issue Perhaps?



## Xannia (Sep 25, 2008)

Herro.
I'm new to your forums and happen to have about a million questions.
However I'll start with one that is very puzzling, yet rather expected.

I have a 75 gallon tank.. which contains the following fishes;

19 Platies (A lot are fry that are going to new homes)
8 Swordtails (Mostly females)
7 Neon Tetras (Not sure how to gender them)
6 Mollies (3 female babies, 2 adult females, and 1 male)
4 Dwarf Gouramis (3 male, and 1 female)
2 Tiger Barbs (Both Males)
2 Green Barbs (Both Males)
2 Cherry Barbs (1 female and 1 male)
2 Gold Barbs (Both male)
1 Albino Shark (Have no idea what gender)
1 Featherfin Catfish (Again, no idea)
1 Dragonfish (I have no clue..lol)
1 Common Pleco (He sucks, least I think its a he.)

So with all that info out there, here is my question.

I've been noticing a lot of nip marks on my swordtails in the morning. So every night I'll sit there and stare at my fish and try to figure out who is doing all of this.. I haven't been able to catch any of my fish doing this. I suspect its the Tiger/Green Barbs.. or maybe even my shark. I've so far lost 3 swordtails. Two of them I believe died from being nibbled on, the other I'm not sure since I didn't see it until I was cleaning my tank.

Would any of you happen to have any suggestions?

Also, my dragonfish has been ripping my tank to shreds. He keeps trying to hid under rocks. I'll make him a home out of them and he'll just dig under them causing them to fall and nearly kill my fish. I've tried almost everything other than PVC pipe under the sand. Any ideas?

Thanks for reading my essay!:fish:


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## Guest (Sep 25, 2008)

My money's on the barbs as well. All the barbs you have, except the cherry barbs, will be aggressive if not kept in the right size group. They'll need at least 6 of each type of barb to be happier, or at least keep the aggression to themselves.

By dragon fish do you mean dragon goby? If so, I believe this fish is a brackish water fish, so he really shouldn't be kept in freshwater for long.


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## Ghost Knife (Mar 12, 2008)

I agree with Ich. You need to find a way to move the Tiger and Green Barbs, as well as the Dragon Goby. The rest of the fish are Tropical Community and should do fine together.


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## Xannia (Sep 25, 2008)

Yes, the Dragonfish is a Goby Dragonfish. 








I'm surprised that he's brackish. The fish store that I bought him at kept him with a featherfin catfish in freshwater and recommended it to me since I wanted another bottom dweller.

Lame.

As far as my Tiger/Green barbs go, it was rather expected.

However I've never had any issue with my Gold Barbs.








I've had them for at least a year now and never had any aggression problems.


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## trashion (Aug 24, 2007)

Like the others, I would suggest removing the goby and setting up either a brackish tank just for him or returning him to the pet store (and suggest that they give better advice) 

Another thing that jumps out at me is the fact that a couple of fish died in your tank and you didn't notice until cleaning. I'm not scolding you, it happens to all of us, but I would like to know what your maintenance schedule is like. It's possible that your fish are suffering fin rot rather than aggression, if the maintenance isn't that frequent--that's why I'm asking


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## Xannia (Sep 25, 2008)

I generally siphon pewp up every 1-2 weeks. I just majorly cleaned my tank about 4 days ago. I removed the rocks and went to sand (blasting sand)

It was my swordtails that died. I had just gotten them 2 days previously.

I looked in my tank this morning and noticed my molly was missing a chunk out of her tail. So I would believe its from being munched on since it was all there the night before.


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## trashion (Aug 24, 2007)

Major cleaning? Not a good idea....

Most people on this forum (including myself) rely on weekly partial water changes + light cleanings. Frequent water changes makes for a clean tank 

Changing the substrate could have caused an ammonia spike, as a lot of nitrifying bacteria dwell on it. Can you give us readings?


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## COM (Mar 15, 2008)

Okay, well, I think the problems are obvious.

1- Aggression: Too many aggressive fish not in schools. They're attacking the less aggressive and slower moving fish, like fat swordtails.
2- Maintenance: Weekly smaller water changes are better, although not always attainable.
3- Substrate: changing substrate can cause a loss of bacteria, but usually not enough to harm most fish. This may or may not have had anything to do with your deaths.

Recommendations:
1- Schools: Beef up your schools on the barbs
2- Goby: Rehome that goby if you can. 
3- Maintenance: Aim for weekly maintenance if you can. This will make things easier in the long-run.


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