Unusual Behaviour

Hey everyone!

I currently have a 30 gallon planted tank with 10 rummy nose tetra, 10 neon tetra, and one new betta who was added yesterday.

While I was acclimating the betta, I didn't notice any unusual behaviour as they all seemed to ignore the betta and the betta ignored them too. However, I noticed this morning that my rummy nose tetras have started to chase him and occasionally nip him. It's only the rummy nose that are doing this, the neons completely ignore the betta. This is very weird to me as I've never experienced this kind of aggression from what are supposed to be very peaceful fish

Could this be curiosity that will calm down? Or is this some kind of strange aggression?

Water was tested an hour ago and everything was perfect:
Ammonia - 0.0
Nitrate - 10
Nitrite - 0.0
Temp - 72.5°F

Oops! Temp is actually 75.2°F, my mistake!

 

It sounds as though real damage may be done to the Betta. Maybe it will calm down but I doubt it.

Animals are unpredictable because we don't know everything about them in every situation.

I was surprised to find my Harlequins bit off all the whiskers from my treasured Hoplo Catfish which was so stressed it didn't dare to sit on the substrate for a week and swam in midwater. The Harlequins were removed immediately and luckily my Hoplo's whiskers regrew completely.

What a lovely fish that catfish was. It gave me pleasure every time I saw it. I loved to watch it swim around. How I wished it had lived longer. She lived for five years in an aquarium where some other catfish lived ten.

I believe they are now recommended to be kept in groups, but that information and fashion was not widespread back then. It used to be the fashion to keep all bottom feeders singly.

 

Thank you for a quick response!

Awh no since he's only been in there for less than 24hrs I think I'm going to give it a chance and monitor their behaviour closely so if it gets worse or doesn't seem to be improving, I'll move him into a separate tank I have prepared for emergencies.

Is there anything I could do to perhaps calm them all down a little?

 

They'll calm down and probably only are excited by the newcomer.

 

As it is a planted tank, you could always add more plants. More plants=more hiding spaces. A well planted tank can really disperse aggression.

 

Good idea, can't go wrong with more plants to change things up! Thank you

 

Small update! Well guys in just a few hours there has been huge improvements! The nipping and chasing has reduced hugely and my betta can more comfortably swim around... until he gets to one specific spot. This led me to conclude that it's territorial aggression (maybe?) and I plan to buy more plants tomorrow and rearrange my tank a lil to disperse any aggression