A Couple Of Zebra Danio Questions

[Fwapp]

Good Morning Everyone,

If you read my post in the beginners section, you'll know that of the four zebs I recently added to my tank, one seemed to dig in and die.

Last Friday, i bought three more zebs, bringing the total upto 6, meaning that they now should shoal together. For the rest of friday, they did, really nice to watch. I was a happy bunny.

However, yesterday we (my family) were out 'till the evening, and when we got back, I found that the largest of the shoal (one of the new additions) had taken over the tank. He chases all the the other zebs to one side of the tank and constantly 'patrols' the border. he also looses his colour when the tank is lit. I was surprised by this behaviour, as I was led to understand that shoaling fish were not that aggressive towards each other. Any advice would be appreciated.

Also, I'm currently feeding a small pinch of King British tropical flake, twice a day What do others feed as main food, and what do you feed for variety?

Thanks for reading.

 

[Erised]

Zebra danios are known finnippers, and will constantly chase eachother. If not kept in a shoal big enough, they'll also chase other fish that might be in the tank. With a group of 6 though, you should be ok and they'll keep their activeness/aggressiveness within their own group. It's perfectly normal to have 1 dominant zebra danio that will patrol her own territory and chase the others (you'll soon notice the others will start chasing eachother as well). Her losing colour though, is something I'm kind of worried about, as I've never seen this happen. Afraid I'm clueless on that.

Main diet of my fish concists of a combo of flakes & frozen bloodworms. Getting fed every other day. And ofcourse algae tabs for my bottomdwellers =). Treats are in the form of cucumber, brine shrimp, daphnia, frozen shrimp, white bloodworms and whatever else I can find frozen.

 

[Fwapp]

Thanks for the quick reply.

I must admit I found it strange that the dominant zeb is keeping the other 5 in what appears to be 8cm (width) of tank, with the rest being her territory. Hopefully they'll start shoaling soon.

The coloration issue is odd. At the moment, with natural light the dominant fish is a lovely colour. But this evening, when I put the hood light on, it'll soon fade.