Why Are My Fish Suddenly Fighting

[RobRocksFishTank]

The filter is probably working fine. You need more water movement to keep the debris from settling.

 

[franny7261]

I do have another...I don't know what it is called but it keeps a current movement in the water going. It was given to me with a lot of other things when I bought a 20 gallon tank it is submersible and it has two magnets one inside and one outside to hold it at the depth you want it. It gives a pretty nice current do you think I should put it in around 2-3 inches above gravel level? Ok it is a koralia nano 425 power head.

 

[RobRocksFishTank]

It does help to have water flow at the bottom of the tank. This helps keep debris off the bottom and let's your filter pick it up. It is also advisable to have more than one filter. (The power head is not a filter, it just moves water.) Having more than one filter eliminates the emergency, if one fails. 

 

[RainboWBacoN420]

I'm sorry to hear about your injured fish, fish fighting in a community tank is always heart breaking. I have an interesting story about my fish picking at each other, which later I just resolved with separating the fish.
I was putting some new fish in, a Gold Twinbar Platy and a striped Dwarf Gaurami. There were already three Tequila Sunrise Guppies in the tank. As soon as I dropped the new fish in there, the guppies instantly fell in love with the platy. And from then on you would always, I mean always see the guppies schooling with the Platy. The platy didn't really seem to mind either, it was the most interesting friendship in the tank besides the mollies. But one day all of that changed, I'm pretty sure it was high ammonia levels that triggered it, but for a few days I noticed every time the guppies attempted to swim with the platy, the platy would go nuts and chase them away. I took the platy out and placed him in a time out tank for about a good hour to disorient him. When I placed him back, the guppies swarmed him like they missed him, and platy kept his cool for a short time but ended up chasing them away again. It wasn't until later I realized the platy was trying to defend himself, as the guppies were picking at his fins. This kept happening over and over again, the guppies would keep their distance sometimes, but one at a time they would try to sneak up on him. THEN, one day came where they were having their usual fit, and our dwarf gaurami comes out of nowhere and totally recks the platy. I'm talking about ripping scales off and totally ruining his side fins. We talked to PetSmart and they told us the gaurami probably just saw the guppies picking on platy, so social pressure to fit in took over. The poor guy was still alive but swimming side ways and just looked like he was one his last fin (pun intended). I took him out and placed him back in the time out tank so he could die in peace, or at least away from all the jerks in the community. I left him in there for about four or five days and he was still alive! So I wanted to put him back in the community, and when the guppies began their usual bullying, I took them out and placed them in the crab tank as punishment for harassing a peaceful fish, where surprisingly, they're still in there and doing very well. Plus, they look very beautiful under the pink LED light. But after platy returned home he lived, he swam a little funny still, but he was recovering just fine... Until a major fungus break out happened and wiped out many fish including him... :c

 

[franny7261]

Poor things! Disease is such a tragic thing I just can't figure it out some time. I have a tank that I was given to by my brother-in-law and it had ick. I treated it not once but I had to treat it twice to finally get rid of that pesty stuff. That tank has just been a pain to me. I have lost so many fish in it. So this last move when I completely took it down I bleached everything (19 parts water to 1 part bleach) to hopefully kill whatever. Well what happens I am still loosing fish??? One I found floating I have no reason why, another just disappeared and the last ended up in my filtration system somehow. So this tank is jinxed. I have been told the Chinese Algae eater that I had in there was a horrible killer of fish as it sucks the slime off the fish and kills them and to remove it from the tank immediately. So now it is in its own little 10 gallon tank of its very own for the remainder of its life. I replaced it with a Pleocostomus, I know it will grow huge but I will move it up. I live in the midst of nowhere so I have to go with what I can get. So I will replace the fish lost and see what will happen now. I pray the CAE was the major problem as everyone here has said.