Help! Danios killed my neons

[jazzx101]

Hey, here's my deal...

I have 3 zebra danios in my tank currently, and they are just about full size. A couple of days ago I bought 3 neons and tried to introduce them into the tank. A day later, their fins were -totally- shredded, and they just ended up floating aimlessly around the tank or getting stuck to the water intake part of my filter. Now they are dead. I do feel bad about it but I'm trying to move on.

Do you think if I add one more zebra danios, it will end up like the others? Or will the fact that it is the same species make a difference? Any ideas will help.

 

[juliethegr8t]

Hi there. I definitely would recommend you enlarge your school before trying to add any different species of fish. Zebra Danios are extremely active fish and they will bother other fish if they don't have more of their own species to pick on. You shouldn't have a problem introducing one more, though I'd say introduce 3 more at least, 2 minimum. That way they won't pick on the new guy for sure.

I'm sorry for what happened to your neons, but I wonder if it's possible they were ill when you got them. Neons aren't extremely slow fish, so it's curious that the danios picked on them. However, if they were sick it wouldn't have surprised me because that's just how the fishie world works - especially with superactive fish like the zebras.