Fin-Nippers

[TheLilFishy]

Hey Guys,

So I got a new tank about 3 weeks ago, its a Fluval Chi 19L, and I asked if my mum wanted my old tank, its just a cheap beginner one, thats about 11L, but my small fish were happy in it, so I asked if she wanted it, and she said yes, so, we went down to the local Pet shop, and bought 2 Fantails, I know the tank's too small, and I bought one too, again, I know small tank, but my mum's first one died, so we were a little bit sad, but happy that it was out of its misery, now, she got a white cloud mountain Minnow, and a Danio I think for free, the Minnow is a baby, but the Danio is quite big, so, the tail got to look really blotchy, and like skin had fallen off, and upon further inspection by me and mum, it turns out the Danio nips at the Fantails tail, the top bit of the tail, has split, and the tail has hardly any skin left on it, at first, I thought it might be ick, because it had white and red spots, but I think this is the cause of them, my question is, if I move it to my tank, will the skin grow back on the tail, and the red/white marks go? The fish in my tank are all happy with each other and none of them fin-nip,

Any information on what I should do, whether it will survive, or if I need to put it out of it's misery will be taken into consideration and probably be taken as a course of action.

Thank you for taking the time to read this, I know it was long, but I tryed to put as much detail as I could in.

Many Thanks,

T

[Helen]

i don't know for tropicals sorry..

[cmclien]

Are you saying the Danio is nipping the fantail's tail also?

If so, goldfish really shouldn't be housed with other fish, and yes it will grow back if you move it in with your other goldfish though you are overstocked and should look into a bigger tank. How many fish goldfish do you have in the 19L? Honestly its not even big enough for one goldfish for more then a few months if its small, they require alot more space then tropicals.

[shuaib]

Is your tank cycled?

Zebra danios are considered to be fin nippers.

Are you sure that tail is nipped or it may be fin rot.

[TheLilFishy]

I know it's fin nipping because I've seen it, also in my tank I have 2 danios, 2 minnows and a fantail

[cmclien]

Unfortunately you might need to either re-home the danios or the fantail, or separate them into different tanks if you can do that.

[Orandatchi]

Usually, the fantail would have made a snack out of the danios, ( ) but goldfish shouldn't really be put with other fish other than goldfish, as others said.

[tithra]

Am I correction to understand this is the current tank situation:

- a 19 liter (5 gallon) tank with 1 fantail, 2 minnows, 2 danios

- an 11 liter (3 gallon) tank with 2 fantails, 1 minnow, and 1 danio

Are these tanks filtered?

The minnows/danios should really not be kept with the fantails. Sometimes people have gotten away with keeping minnows with goldfish, but they typically end up getting eaten at some point. You should either separate these fish into their own (appropriately sized) tank or bring them back to the pet store.

However, the minnow/danios nipping is honestly the least of your worries right now. Goldfish can not be kept in a 19 or 11 liter tank. Your fish will not survive long under these conditions. You need to either take the fish back to the pet store, rehome them, or get an appropriate sized tank. Goldfish require 55-75 liters (15-20 gallons) for each fish. So, you are looking at 130-150 liters for 3 goldfish. If you cannot afford a larger tank right now, you can get a large plastic storage bin to keep them in temporarily.

If you are unable to provide them with adequate tank space you should not have goldfish. You will be unable to keep them healthy in a tank that small, they produce too much waste, and grow much too large.

Please let us know what you decide. If you can fix the tank situation and provide them with more space we will be happy to help with treatment of the fantail that is having problems if a larger tank and clean water doesn't take care of things.

Until you figure out what you are going to do, the best thing you can do is daily (I would actually recommend 2x daily given the tank size) 100% water changes.

[Banjo123]

Good luck