Valchitsa

..... snacks later?



Anyway, here is the thing:
29 gallon tank
7 zebra danios
1 rainbow shark.

Now I've been hearing from some people that the shark will eat or at least try to kill the zebras as soon as it gets big enough. Quite frankly I'd love to see it catch those spazzes. But seriously should I worry about the zebra's safety or no?

Also, I had 8 zebras.. but for some reason 7 of them really hated the 8th... she didn't have any visible signs of disease but they all chased her trying to peck out her eyes (she did go blind for most of the day actually) and just terrorizing her. I took her back to the store and she was still there the last time I visited, and I know it was her because no other fish had their fins so chewed up. So why did my zebras hate her so much? she was the same size and they got along for almost a week.

And one more thing. I also had a pleco who died after just a week in the tank. I found him on his side in one of the caves. He wasn't picked at and actually all the fish ignored him. I have no clue what killed him and I'm kinda worried that there is something swimming around the tank driving the fish insane. Right now I'm stuck between just random sudden death and starvation (new tank... no algie and i never saw him even touch the algie wafers).

Ok I think that's all for now.. n00b questions done for now.

Oh and thank you all for the advice on setting up my new tank. I haven't had fish for years but you guys really helped out with jump starting my memory.

pepetj

Hi Valchista:
I don't know about the shark going after the Danios.
I have a school of 8 (4 of them Glofish), and a daughter of almost 4 years that loves them, and... count them. One of the Glofish got killed by young Convicts I was housing there temporarely -my mistake. I went to the LFS and got another Glofish to replace the missing one without my daughter knowing it. It took some time -a matter of two or three days, for the established school to accept the newcomer, I was afraid since some of them -not all- were chasing him kind of relentlessly, but in the end it went OK.

I also noticed that some Danios behaved differently than others when the Convicts were in the tank, displaying aggressive fin-nipping towards one of the females -she is OK now and not being attacked anymore. Maybe the Shark is eliciting some aggressive behavior, but I might me mistaken, I'm no expert.

Pepe
Santo Domingo

Barbrella

When the pleco died, how new was the tank? Had it been properly cycled and the water tested before adding the pleco?

Your shark won't eat your danios as long as they don't fit in his mouth. They mostly harass other fish, especially smaller ones, but danios are fast enough to elude him. Just don't keep any smaller, timid and/or slow fish with him.

Valchitsa

The tank was already cycled. ph was at 7.0 and ammonia at 0.0. But like I said there was no algae and I don't think he was happy about the wafers. Maybe I just scared him to death because I was climbing around the tank trying to cut off some dead leaves. I'm gonna give the tank a month to sit then I'll try adding another pleco. Hopefully that one will survive.

Good thing about the danios being safe though.

Laelanna

A little off topic, but the glofish swap made me think of it. My two oldest boys were away for a few weeks this summer and one of them has mice. He has a black and white mouse, and had a white and grey mouse. The white and grey mouse died while he was gone. Well, all the LFS had up here were pure white mice.... He thinks its the same mouse it just got into bleach or something! I don't know how long he will go before he really starts to question it, but so far I'm good.

Valchitsa

Laelanna and pepetj, my mom tried a switch like that when i was a kid too once. We had a tank when I was little with Cichlids. Well one of the fish I loved from that tank (a cockatoo chichlid) jumped out while I was at school. She tried to replace him but i knew it wasn't him from the second I saw him... he didn't greet me when I got home. But I was 7 when that happened so enjoy the days when your kids believe things like that because pretty soon that won't pass by unnoticed. Also Laenna, try getting your boys rats. They are a lot smarter then mice. You can train them too. I had rats for years and they are so much fun.

Laelanna

I wanted to get them rats but my hubby said NO RATS! So one has a hamster the other has 2 mice.