Weakening an overly agressive fish?

[camus]

Hello,

I'm a newbie to having a freshwater tank so I hope this question isn't that stupid...

A couple weeks ago I bought 2 Zebra Danios. They were roughly the same size but then one got stronger and would terrorize the other all the time. Eventually, the other one got skinnier and skinnier and then died. I was very sad.

Then I noticed after the demise of the weaker Danio the aggressor Danio was chasing around my 3 remaining (smaller) Neon Tetras (an aside: I have gotten three different groups of Neons and it seems that eventually only one always survives from the group - I think my Colored Parrots chase them at night.)

So, after reading that some fish do better if there is a larger number, I got two more Danios. I tried to get two that were as close to the size of my current one. Well, when I put them in the tank today, the incumbent Danio immediately started terrorizing them.

So, I removed the aggressive Danio and now he is in a drinking glass. Sort of "in the corner" now. I was thinking of not feeding him for a few days to weaken him and then reintroducing him back into the tank so he will be more on an equal basis with the new Danios.

Ok, maybe I am analyzing this way too much... But do you think this could work? Or will the aggressive Danio be a jerk again when he gets his strength back?

Thanks for any sugguestions.

Mark

 

[Mr Miagi]

Ummmm, yeeeesssss. I dont think you would treat a kid like that would ya??? lol.

Anyways, umm, yes. Danios do preffer to live in schoals. say 6+

So it would be wise to invest your money in some more.

I think u may have a rogue danio. Dont keep it in a glass, ok, dont not feed it, but instead, see if you can give it back to your lfs. They may give you some food for it, or a refund, but it would be farrrr better off just giving it away than leaving it in a drinking glass....i mean......come on.

 

[sylvia]

Deffinately take it out of the glass. That's cruel.

Get 3 more danios. That should solve the problem as the aggression will be more spread out.