Zebra Danio injured! Tips for helping her??

[Naidisbo]

I have five Zebra Danios who have for the most part been great with eachother.
Three females and two males with at least one obvious breeding pair; a large female I call "Big Bertha" and her smaller man "Henry". One of the unpaired females however, had been pestering "Big Bertha" and "Henry" while they spawned.

Today, Bertha was chasing her around the tank and tore her up badly!
I grabbed her out as soon as I saw what was going on but already most of her tail was gone and even some of her left gill seems to be missing!

After everything calmed down again I put her back in the tank because she was starting to zoom around in panic and smashing into the sides of the hospital bucket.
She's rejoined the school and doesn't even seem fazed now, but I'm worried about her! I didn't even know they would fight so aggressively or could even damage eachother like that!

If I took her back, the place I got them from would probably just throw her out.

I'm going to try to do even more frequent water changes to avoid infection, but does anyone have any suggestions for what else I could do?? It's been about half an hour and everything's mostly calmed down. She's keeping up with the rest of the group, but Bertha keeps nipping at her if she gets too close.

 

[FroFro]

I have five Zebra Danios who have for the most part been great with eachother.
Three females and two males with at least one obvious breeding pair; a large female I call "Big Bertha" and her smaller man "Henry". One of the unpaired females however, had been pestering "Big Bertha" and "Henry" while they spawned.

Today, Bertha was chasing her around the tank and tore her up badly!
I grabbed her out as soon as I saw what was going on but already most of her tail was gone and even some of her left gill seems to be missing!

After everything calmed down again I put her back in the tank because she was starting to zoom around in panic and smashing into the sides of the hospital bucket.
She's rejoined the school and doesn't even seem fazed now, but I'm worried about her! I didn't even know they would fight so aggressively or could even damage eachother like that!

If I took her back, the place I got them from would probably just throw her out.

I'm going to try to do even more frequent water changes to avoid infection, but does anyone have any suggestions for what else I could do?? It's been about half an hour and everything's mostly calmed down. She's keeping up with the rest of the group, but Bertha keeps nipping at her if she gets too close.

I used to have zebra danios when I first started in the hobby. Nasty, nippy little things that constantly harassed my mollies simply because they could. They are neat to look at but they can have nasty temperaments, at least my school did.

I'd keep up on your water changes and steady and make sure your injured danio has a place to retreat to if it has the need. If you notice any obvious signs of blood or you see serious red wounds the fish needs to be separated immediately from the tank to prevent further injury. If you are concerned for the fish, you can remove the breeding pair until she is healed and then place them back in the tank. Keep a good eye out for infection or fungus developing. It wouldn't hurt to have a bit of medicine on hand should the need arise. I do know that larger schools are usually required with fish like danio's to reduce aggression between then. Once your fish is fully healed, and if your tank space can allow it, I'd add three to four more danios to enlarge the school.

 

[Naidisbo]

I used to have zebra danios when I first started in the hobby. Nasty, nippy little things that constantly harassed my mollies simply because they could. They are neat to look at but they can have nasty temperaments, at least my school did.

I'd keep up on your water changes and steady and make sure your injured danio has a place to retreat to if it has the need. If you notice any obvious signs of blood or you see serious red wounds the fish needs to be separated immediately from the tank to prevent further injury. If you are concerned for the fish, you can remove the breeding pair until she is healed and then place them back in the tank. Keep a good eye out for infection or fungus developing. It wouldn't hurt to have a bit of medicine on hand should the need arise. I do know that larger schools are usually required with fish like danio's to reduce aggression between then. Once your fish is fully healed, and if your tank space can allow it, I'd add three to four more danios to enlarge the school.

Heh, I'm just starting out myself... Didn't expect them to be so costly to keep up with, but I've been doing what I can so far. I'm determined to keep them happy and healthy.
Bought a couple bushy [fake]plants and made a retreat area... Of course, the whole school had to go check out the new stuff.
Looking into antifungal and antibacterial medications, but most of them are pretty costly or unavailable in my area. I'll just have to keep up with tank cleaning and hope she doesn't get sick... She seems alright so far. The nipping stopped for now... Once I have a larger tank in about a month I will most definitely get more Danios for the school. I hadn't been worrying about it much as they weren't nipping at first, but this was really bad.

Thanks for the help though, as well not being judgemental about the situation.