Zebra danios playing or fighting?

[Jbaize]

I am brand new to aquariums and fish keeping. I bought 8 zebra danios a few days ago and noticed yesterday one of them is missing an eye. Unfortunately I don't know if it came from the store that way, if it's Popeye, or wounds from a fight. It has a small chip in his back fin but it it very geometric so I don't think it's fin rot. I notice they chase after one another often but after lots of googling it's either playing or aggression. the fish missing an eye is a bit smaller than the biggest one in the tank there are 2 roughly full size and 2 very small (around an inch) the rest are inbetween the only time I see what I think is aggression is when they are eating

Any help offered would be greatly appreciated thank you!

 

[Sgooosh]

they might be setting a pecking order to see who's the strongest

 

[Jbaize]

they might be setting a pecking order to see who's the strongest

Should I worry about the fish without an eye

 

[GaryE]

I've had 2 one eyed fish at various times, and both did fine. It can be from fighting, but is usually from nets and rough treatment along the way.

Zebra danios like to rush through well filtered, moving water, where they have very set rank orders. The skinnier ones are male, and the females have more rounded bellies.

 

[Colin_T]

Pictures and video of the fish?

 

[Jbaize]

I'm not currently home but I can get some when I am

 

[Byron]

Leaving aside the "injury," all danios are very active fish, and will charge around continually. You have a group of 8 which is good (not the too often two or three) as they are shoaling fish and the more there are the less likely trouble will develop from their antics. We may consider this normal behaviour as "play," but the fish take a more serious view, but they shouldn't go tearing into one another with a decent number and given sufficient space to be themselves [no mention is made of the tank size, but a length of 30 inches/75 cm is minimum].

 

[Jbaize]

My tank is 24'l, 12'w, 16'h, 20 gallon
So the fish are likely not attacking one another?

 

[Byron]

My tank is 24'l, 12'w, 16'h, 20 gallon
So the fish are likely not attacking one another?

From your description, the fish seem to be interacting as they are programmed genetically to do. It would be remiss of me not to mention though that given their active lifestyle, they would be in a better position in a longer tank, but at least it is a 20g and not a 10g as some try.

 

[Jbaize]

Thanks so much for the help
I really enjoy the speices hopefully I will eventually graduate to a larger tank so I could have better room for them

 

[Sgooosh]

Should I worry about the fish without an eye

no, that probably means it just got in a fight, probably tougher than most fish

 

[Jbaize]

Thank you for the help

 

[Sgooosh]

Thanks so much for the help
I really enjoy the speices hopefully I will eventually graduate to a larger tank so I could have better room for them

Thank you for the help

that's great to hear
bigger tanks and bigger school is always good for fish

 

[Jbaize]

The employee at my LFS told me that size would be perfect so i didn't think about it bring to small

 

[Byron]

The employee at my LFS told me that size would be perfect so i didn't think about it bring to small

Sadly, that is one of the most unfortunate aspects of this hobby, the misinformation given by so many fish store staff (and the nonsense on YouTube and similar is no better). We have many threads about this. Always check with a reliable knowledgeable individual, site, or this forum. If we could stop most of the inaccurate information given by stores it would save considerable problems and fish lives. We all live and learn, and most of us made many of the same mistakes in learning.