hartley9uk

....i got up yesterday morning and sat having a cupa , when i noticed one of my zebra danio's being attacked by my tiger barb which never normally happens as the danio's are far to fast , i checked danio out and he seemed tired and kept lopping to his left side slightly , i could see red marks on his tummy where the barb had been nipping at him.
So i separated him with a net but kept him in the same tank, he just layed on the net resting, so i left him and went to work.
Expecting when i come home to find him dead , he was still laying on net but as soon as moved it he came alive swimming around, it was then that i saw he had a eye missing!!! Don't no whats happened could this have been done in a fight??
And when you watch him swim it is his left side where the eye has gone in which he keeps lopping over from time to time.
I dont no what to do with him , i keep letting him have a swim in the tank for a while but cant leave him for to long as the tiger barb just homes in on him!
Also with his sight not that good now he doesn't seem to see the food that i give him.
The poor little fellow keeps having a swim then just lays in the net again.

Help am i being cruel doing this should i just let him in the tank let nature take its course
Thanx Emma

Terry

Hi and sorry about the zebra. When I first got into fishkeeping many years ago I thought the Tiger Barbs were a great looking fish, and bought a few home to be in a tank with guppies, etc. But, it took practically no time at all to find out the hard way that the Tiger Barbs are notorious fin nippers of other fish. I've heard that if you keep the tigers with several of their own kind that they may leave the other fish alone, but as pretty as the tigers are I'll never get any again. Not sure what to tell you to do with the zebra - it would seem a shame to let the tiger finish him off - I'd euthanize him quickly myself - in a paper towel or something.

COBettaCouple

if you decide to put him down, this page has humane methods to euthanize a fish a little ways down on it: http://www.nippyfish.net/euthanasia.html.

If you don't want to put him down, he'll need a little hospital tank to recover in and meds to help his wounds heal. NovAqua+ (a water conditioner) may help a little, but if the wounds are deep, he might need something like trisulfa. I'm not sure what would be the best med, but those who've treated bite wounds probably will have the best meds for you to use.

Good luck with whichever course you take.

hartley9uk

......Just to elt you no my danio is now at peace the poor little thing , was getting attacked all the time by the tiger barb and even his other danio friends started turning on him ... the last thing i saw was tiger attacking him and he just laid at the bottom of the tank ,so i decided that the best thing for him was to uthanise him , so thankyou i looked om that site you gave me and i did the alka selzer one it worked.
Thanks for your advice...
Emma

COBettaCouple

Sounds like it was for the best.. he was on the way out if they all turned on him. I'm sorry for your loss, it's a tough job, but you did your best for him and that's all we can do for our pets.