Anyone keep killis in a community tank?

I have a 75 gallon heavily planted and heavily decorated community tank.

I have a bunch of dwarf rainbows, danios things like that. I have been having trouble with nipped fins and I’d like to solve it. I’ve had troubles pretty much right from the get go.
I started off with some choprea or glow light danios and a pair of lyrtailed killfish. I started to have some missing fins so I read up and read before that killis are generally only nippy with eachother. So I thought it was the danios since I had 7. I increased it from 7 to 10, then to 15 and still had billed fins. I thought it was the danios so I removed them and put them into my QT tank and moved my previous QT’d fish to the main tank. I still have nipped fins.
I then thought well maybe it’s my golden goby because he’s a bit territorial. Didn’t fix the problem.
So I guess this was a long way of asking do killfish nip other community fish fins? I read usually not but it seems like they are the last resort. I’d hate to get rid of them but o don’t want my fish missing fins all the time. What say you guys?

 

Um, SnookusFish keeps one in a community

 

I have clowns in with shrimp and they leave the shrimp alone but I’ve been thinking of putting them in with a betta or the community tank.
I’d been told that killifish in general can be nippy but that clowns are not. I’ve been hesitant to test that though.

Interests to know others experiences.

 

Yea I keep a pair in my community tank with danios and some tetras and a gourami. The male spends most of his time at the bottom but I see him ocassionally chase a danio but nothing as bad as when they chase each other. If you do a google search it does say avoid keeping blue lyretail killies with long finned top dwellers=danio.

 

Yea I keep a pair in my community tank with danios and some tetras and a gourami. The male spends most of his time at the bottom but I see him ocassionally chase a danio but nothing as bad as when they chase each other. If you do a google search it does say avoid keeping blue lyretail killies with long finned top dwellers=danio.

Well there’s my answer and by process of elimination it has to be them anyway.
thank.

I’d also like to add none of my fish are what I would consider long finned. Ember tetras, CPD, glow light tetras, and furcata rainbows seem to be nipped here and there.

 

Hmmm. I doubt a killifish would fin nip a fish like that, the shape of a killifish's mouth isn't one designed for fin nipping small fish like that, it would be more likely to eat one than nip its fins

 

Hmmm. I doubt a killifish would fin nip a fish like that, the shape of a killifish's mouth isn't one designed for fin nipping small fish like that, it would be more likely to eat one than nip its fins

Funny I thought the same.
So here’s the difficult part is I can not see anyone doing it. I’ll basically wake up in the morning and 4-6 fish out of the same species will have fins nipped. Then a week or two goes by and same thing but a different fish species. Adding new fish seems to be what causes it.
I took a break from adding new fish and it still happened after like a two to three week time window.
I moved all the glow light danios and the golden goby to another tank and no fin nipping.
I will add it’s generally large fin nips as in one of my embers is missing nearly all its tail right now. Also a few fish are missing eyes. One ember had both its eyes swollen and protruding but it healed up. After research it appears it may have been physical damage since I didn’t treat it with meds.
I truly do t know but I’d really like to solve it sooner rather than later.
I think I’ll move the pair of killis to my QT tank and see what happens.
also I have two pairs of killfish of the same species and they leave each other alone. Also an indicator that it’s them is they have never had fins nipped now that I’m thinking of it.

 

saltwater60 : I would have expected the Rainbows to be the fin nippers. They are very active, and I have seen them harass other fish smaller than them.

Lyretailed Killifish without any other names attached are usually Aphyosemion australe, which I have seen get a little nippy with each other. Never kept them with other fish, as it's hard to breed them when you do that. I have kept some GardnerI in community tanks, mostly with more robust species like barbs and big Rainbowfish, and a few dwarf Cichlids. No problems from them under those circumstances.

I've kept Golden Wonder in a mixed tank of catfish, barbs, medium size cichlids, etc. Again, more robust fish.

I would be surprised by Australe nipping other fish, but if they are smaller fish, like Danio choprae, it might be possible. You would want smaller killies, like the Clowns, with the small fish.

 

saltwater60 : I would have expected the Rainbows to be the fin nippers. They are very active, and I have seen them harass other fish smaller than them.

Lyretailed Killifish without any other names attached are usually Aphyosemion australe, which I have seen get a little nippy with each other. Never kept them with other fish, as it's hard to breed them when you do that. I have kept some GardnerI in community tanks, mostly with more robust species like barbs and big Rainbowfish, and a few dwarf Cichlids. No problems from them under those circumstances.

I've kept Golden Wonder in a mixed tank of catfish, barbs, medium size cichlids, etc. Again, more robust fish.

I would be surprised by Australe nipping other fish, but if they are smaller fish, like Danio choprae, it might be possible. You would want smaller killies, like the Clowns, with the small fish.

Thanks. The furcata rainbows don’t seem to bother anyone at all. They are a very small dwarf species maybe an inch or so long, under two inches for sure.
I’ll move some things around here and see what happens.
Here’s what killis I have.
Blue lyretail (Fundulopanchax gardnerI gardneri)

As stated though it’s super hard to tell because I can never see anyone nip the fins. I’ll see a bit of chasing here and there like get out of my space but that’s it.
I know it’s not the furcata rainbows because they are actually the last fish I added and this was happening long before they were I. The tank.

 

Yeah, gardnerI can be nippy with smaller fish, probably because they want to eat them. BTW, furcata are usually referred to as Fork Tail Blue Eyes, which are a group of smaller fish related to the larger Melanotaenia Rainbowfish. When you said Dwarf Rainbowfish, I thought you were talking about M. praecox, aka Neon Rainbowfish.

I would not keep the GardnerI types with the other fish you have, as they are mostly small species. The GardnerI can reach 3.5 inches, sometimes even 4, and are a danger to smaller fish.

 

Yeah, gardnerI can be nippy with smaller fish, probably because they want to eat them. BTW, furcata are usually referred to as Fork Tail Blue Eyes, which are a group of smaller fish related to the larger Melanotaenia Rainbowfish. When you said Dwarf Rainbowfish, I thought you were talking about M. praecox, aka Neon Rainbowfish.

I would not keep the GardnerI types with the other fish you have, as they are mostly small species. The GardnerI can reach 3.5 inches, sometimes even 4, and are a danger to smaller fish.

Thanks. I just want my other fish to be safe. I have already caught the females and moved them to my QT tank. I’ll work on the males tomorrow.
mad stated I pretty much figured it was them by now by process of elimination.
Having you say this confirms it.

 

Yes I was with chrome dome and the dwarf rainbows being praecox not fork tails. Fork tails are very nice rainbows. Added them to a tank with a golden wonder killifish and he ate them all before I figured out what was going on.

 

Yes I was with chrome dome and the dwarf rainbows being praecox not fork tails. Fork tails are very nice rainbows. Added them to a tank with a golden wonder killifish and he ate them all before I figured out what was going on.

So I’m assuming those are who are my exclamation point danio. Cute little guys and I feel bad about that.

 

Hmm, must be the size indeed then. I keep a Blue Lyretail with a pair of Pearl Gourami and a group of KuhlI and it's never been a problem.

 

Hmm, must be the size indeed then. I keep a Blue Lyretail with a pair of Pearl Gourami and a group of KuhlI and it's never been a problem.

There are even nips out of some of my larger fish tails. 2.5-3” max for fish size. Most are the small guys though.

 

Saltwater I'm so glad I came across your post. I am having the exact same problem you have described. I have the exact same killifish, 1male and 2 females in my 55gal and I've been noticing that the tail fin on my 6 wild(peaceful) bettas have been getting nipped. They are looking stressed but I never see anything annoying them. I'm thinking it can only be the killI doing it though.

How did you get on after removing yours? Are the other fish starting to recover or are the nips still happening?

 

Saltwater I'm so glad I came across your post. I am having the exact same problem you have described. I have the exact same killifish, 1male and 2 females in my 55 gallon and I've been noticing that the tail fin on my 6 wild(peaceful) bettas have been getting nipped. They are looking stressed but I never see anything annoying them. I'm thinking it can only be the killI doing it though.

How did you get on after removing yours? Are the other fish starting to recover or are the nips still happening?

Glad I could help someone.
So I got the last one out about a week ago. I had 1 male and 2 females in my 20 gallon QT tank and a pearl danio ended up dead with a damaged head. So the killing moved with the killifish. Of course my wife said well duh their name is killfish.
Also I had one left in my 75 display tank and it killed one more of my dwarf rainbow fish. Again biting it’s head. There have been plenty of fun or tail nips in my cases as well.
All is well in my 75 display tank now and has been about a week. I’m nearly positive it was the killi’s and I’d remove them.
I added 2 males and 2 females into my 20 gallon QT tank and figured maybe the males would quarrel but sadly only one male is left. He killed everyone else in that tank. I’d have sold them back to my LFS but due to the corona virus they are all shutdown.
I’m a bit sick over this personally. I’m sad my bad decision killed some of my fish.

 

Sorry for your loss mate. The silver lining, if you want to see it, is that by sharing the experience I'm getting mine out the tank pronto. I bought them as an impulse buy, beautiful looking wee fish and they have even start spawning, but if they are making my other fishes life miserable then they gotta go.

 

Sorry for your loss mate. The silver lining, if you want to see it, is that by sharing the experience I'm getting mine out the tank pronto. I bought them as an impulse buy, beautiful looking wee fish and they have even start spawning, but if they are making my other fishes life miserable then they gotta go.

For sure that helps. I’m glad this has helped you out.
The other thing is say is I think they had attacked other fish I wasn’t aware of. I’d randomly just get a fish here and there that would get bloated or have a popped out eye. Some would recover and some would die. I think they were attacking them.
Funniest thing is I never witnessed them attack a fish. Never. The tanks in my basement so I do t just sit there and stare At it a lot but that surprises me.
I even had a celestial pearl danio recover from dropsey after removing them. Now that’s impressive.