Jonny_Maelstrom

I've just set up a new 10g tank, cycled and everything, and added serpae tetras on Tuesday. I've come home today and noticed one of them has a white edge to his fin. He's still very active and doesn't seem to be sick, but I'm sure it wasn't there yesterday. I'm attaching a photo (bit blurry, sorry). Anyone think they know what this is?
Thanks.

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Lucy

Hi Jonny, I'm pretty sure a bit of white on it's fin is normal. It's still dark here and I can't turn on the lights to look at mine. (Don't want to wake up the human inhabitants of the house. lol)
As soon as it get lighter, I'll take an look at post back.

Jonny_Maelstrom

Thanks Lucy.
I'm probably being paranoid, but I could swear it wasn't there before. I forgot to say I'm in Australia, so if it turns out he's sick, it would really help if someone out there knows products for sale here (a long shot, I suspect, but worth mentioning).

Lucy

Your welcome, I should have thought of this sooner......in the first post, the last picture, you can see the white on one of my serpaes's fin.

Lucy's Tanks


I must need more coffee lol

Jonny_Maelstrom

Aha! Yes, I see it. That makes me feel a lot better.
Thanks Lucy.

Lucy

Your welcome. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do, they love to chase each other but have never nipped.

Good luck.

Jonny_Maelstrom

Hmm, I'm having some problems with the nipping in fact. I finally transferred Hannibal, my solitary serpae from his 5g tank (bad tank-buying decision, decided to keep him on his own because he killed his sick cell-mate) into the bigger tank and he's been pretty much shredded by the largest fish, who is the only one who doesn't look like he's been in a fight.
I'm getting another couple today to make up the rest of the school as I didn't want to put six fish in all at once, but I think the damage may already have been done. He wasn't very healthy anyway. I see him eat about one flake of food a day, but he's been with me about six months so seems to be getting by on something.
I know it's been said many times, many ways, but will having six of these things DEFINITELY stop them eating each other? Because I'm almost ready to give up on the things.

Lucy

Do they have places to hide and get away from each other? What size tank is it? You might want to put the bully in time out for a while then return him to the tank. It might help with his territorial issues.

I've heard the long finned are terrible fin nippers. I have 4 short finned and they've never nipped.

Jonny_Maelstrom

Good thought. I might transfer over the hollow log thing I had in the old tank and see if that helps. Everyone keeps saying they don't nip when they're in a school, and three of the four came from the same tank in the shop and they were fine then, so hopefully it'll sort itself out when I have some new ones.

Lucy

Great! Good luck, let me know how you make out.

Jonny_Maelstrom

Grrr. My shop has run out of serpae. They seem to have run out of almost everything in fact. Apparently they left a hose running so the tanks got complete water changes. I didn't ask if that meant everybody died, but anyway, I've isolated the bully for a bit. Do you think he's less likely to nip when I bring him back to the tank then, Lucy?

Lucy

Wow, sorry to hear about the shop.

I've used this tactic and it's worked. It probably depends on the fish's personality, but it's worth a try.

Jonny_Maelstrom

Quick update. I now have six serpaes. I reintroduced the aggressive one at the same time I added two newbies. There's definitely some chasing still going on, and all but the bully are looking ragged, but then the new ones were a little ragged when I got them. Hard to tell about nipping without catching him in the act. No-one's looking worse than they did, so fingers crossed, but nothing has miraculously grown back yet. I guess that takes a while, though.

clinton1621

Serpae are definitely notorious fin nippers, maybe try some salt or electrolytes in the meantime to help their fins heal?

Jonny_Maelstrom

Salt as in just salt from the kitchen? I didn't know you could use that. I bought some Melafix which is apparently supposed to help.

Lucy

I believe he mean aquarium salt, not sure, I hope someone who knows more about it sees this, but I know salt is an irritant, I've never used it.
Nipped fins will heal with clean water.

Are you sure it's nipping and not something else?

clinton1621

Yes I did mean aquarium salt, and I know its an irritant... the irritation from it is actually what causes the fish to "heal" as it promotes a better slime coat on their body and helps prevent infection if they dont already have one

Jonny_Maelstrom

Well no, I guess I'm not sure it's nipping. I've read about it and put two and two together and I could be wrong. If it's an infection then the big one's apparently immune, which is why I suspected nipping in the first place. I believe the fins are beginning to grow back but have just noticed one of the smaller fish has a chunk of tail missing. I want to believe it was like that when it came home from the shop, but I don't. I'd have noticed it sooner.

Either way, I don't know what to do. I'm not too keen on keeping an antisocial fish, isolated or not. I also can't help wondering, if I take it back, if the next largest won't just show the same behaviour, as back in my 5g two-fish days, the smallest of this lot was also pretty vicious and shredded a swim-bladder diseased fish's tail quite badly.
Pic attached anyway.

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Lucy

I think you're right, it sure does look like he;s been nipped.
Are the other 5 ok together? I'd take the bully back and keep the 5.

Jonny_Maelstrom

Well, I'm down to five fish now and all has been well for about a month.... until today, when I came home to find the smallest fish has once again had a chunk of fin torn off. And it had hardly even grown back in the first place.
Once again, all but one of the fish is looking the worse for wear. I can keep taking bullies back, but everything I've read says they get more aggressive in smaller numbers. But having lots of them hasn't worked either.
To be blunt, I no longer want this breed of fish but don't much want to dump five aggressive fish on my LFS or anyone else. I couldn't recommend serpaes to anyone else, as all they ever seem to do is eat each other.

Lucy

I'm really sorry you've had problems. Did you ever mention if you had the long finned or the short finned?

After I bought mine, I read a lot of stories about how terrible the long fins are at nipping.

Mine are short finned, not in a proper school and have never nipped.
I guess it goes to show you, what works for one person may not work for another.

Good luck.

clairewood

Its normal. Two of mine have white on the tip and one doesn't. They came that way and are just fine!

JESS01

Maybe you should try a different pet shop?