emilai333

Over the summer I have been in Alaska. When I got back, my roommate said she didn't want the community tank anymore, so gave it to me, with all the remaining fish (she had a few deaths over the summer, mostly in the process of moving down two floors, over two buildings, and up three floors): two male guppies, two tetras, and a male molly. One tetra has always been very shy and rather a loner, he hangs out under the filter or inside one of the jars I have as shelters for them, but I had never before noticed aggression directed at him from other fish. Now I have been noticing that the other tetra will chase him back to his corner if it notices him out at feeding time. I then noticed that my bigger guppy's tail is starting to look a bit frayed, and now I can easily see that he and the molly are chasing each other all over and nipping at each other. As I said, we had no problems before!

I would rather not buy more fish of any of these species because I am trying to allow this tank to die out (by old age, I'm not neglecting them or otherwise encouraging early deaths) so that I can move a couple of bettas in.

Can water quality fluctuations cause this kind of behavior change? When I moved them, I brought 50% of their old water, but I think my roommate had just changed the filter cartridge (I appreciate the effort, but that of course means my tank has to do some re-cycling), and the move was rather bumpy (we put the half-empty tank on a wheeled cart to get it as far as the first floor of my house)... Otherwise, what is recommended to rectify the situation? I don't have my other 10g cycled up yet, or either of my 5g's (my poor bettas are confined to gallon jugs while I frantically adjust back to college life), so I can't even segregate the perps for the moment!

emilai333

The problem is still persisting... any advice?

Chief_waterchanger

Try to rearrange the tank decorations, caves, etc. Try feeding on the two extreme ends of the tank, so that perhaps the one being chased at feeding time can snatch up some food. The guppy tail fraying will happen as they get older, but the molly could very well be the culprit, specially since you caught it red... err.. red finned?

Good luck

emilai333

Well, I'm going to put all of my community fish into a new tank once I get the new tank cycled (I figure I want the community tank across the room and the new fish where the CT is now... why move the whole tank when fish weigh much less?) so hopefully that will amaze them into being nice to each other. I always feed from end to end now instead of just putting a patch in the middle, and increasing number of feedings per day (decreased food per feeding slightly but 3 per day instead of two) has decreased the bullying somewhat, but its still going on.
The molly is only partly the problem - one of the tetras is a bit of a bully too. Maybe I'll put her into a 5g for a while, and let her cool her scales, lol.
Thanks for the advice.