I have had 6 neon tetras for over a month, almost a month and a half. The cycling of my new 29 gallon tank went well, all survived and readings of ammonia are down and nitrite are decreasing quickly. Yesterday I added 5 red minor tetras and everything seems fine. All of the fish are eating well and seem to be getting along. The only problem i noticed was that one of my neons has a bit of a frayed tail fin, which i guess was probably from one of the new fish. That's the only fish i noticed with any problems. Should i do anything about this?
Hello and welcome to TFK :-D What are the numbers for your ammonia, nitrites and nitrates? What are you using for testing, liquid test kit or sitrip tests? On the frayed tail fin is the edge of the fin turning a different color? How often and how much water do you change out from the tank?
Return the Red Minor Tetra immediately. This will likely get worse until the neons are very ill or dead.
The Red Minor is also known as the Serpae Tetra, Hyphessobrycon eques. If you click the shaded name you will see this species' profile, and in that it mentions it is a notorious fin nipper. Sometimes individual fish don't nip, sometimes they nip another fish to death. The species has the inherent trait of nipping, and will likely do so.
They are not suitable community fish except in large groups (12 or more) in very large tanks. In such conditions, they usually confine the nipping to themselves. If you look at this fish in store tanks, they almost always have frayed fins due to their nipping. Just having such an aggressive fish in a tank can cause severe stress to other fish like neons.
Byron.
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