CammieTime
01-27-2018, 08:22 PM
There is drama in my QT tanks.
I got 8 3" fish a month ago from a SD sponsor. At first, 3 of the 8 ate immediately and started to grow big fast, while 5 refused to eat and started to wither. I feed cobalt flakes and freeze dried black worms. Anyway, I put the 5 non-eaters into the hospital tank and gave them a dose of API General Cure because I think the shipping stressed them and that is why they were not eating. After the treatment and about two weeks 4 of the 5 started to eat and were back to normal. The 5th one never ate and withered away and died.
Of the 4 remaining in the hospital tank, 1 still had scars from the hole in the head he got during shipping, so I kept him in the hospital tank and transferred the other 3 back to the big 75 gallon tank with the 3 fish that ate from the beginning.
Of those 3 that ate from the beginning and did not go into the hospital tank, the smallest one was bullied by the bigger 2 and eventually stopped eating. The bigger 2 got huge fast are at least 4+" by now. To save the little one that got bullied, I put a divider in the 75 gallon tank and that kept him safe from the 2 bullies...that saved him...he came back to life and started eating again.
Right around the time the bullied fish was eating and happy again, I put the 3 healthy survivors from the hospital tank into the 75 gallon tank, on the side of the divider of the once bullied fish. I did not want the 2 big fish to bully them. These 4 became friends and ate, but due to their ordeal they hardly grew in the past month, so they are still about 3". The 2 big ones on the other side of the divider continue to grow huge and seem to get along, they are equal size. For the 1 left behind in the hospital tank, I put some salt in the water to help heal his wounds and kept him in there for the past week - it is working, his wounds are healing fast and he is happy and eating.
Today I noticed that the 4 3" fish all together in the 75 gallon tank now have a bully problem...the one that almost died from bullying is now bullying the other 3! He does not let them eat. I was hesitant to remove the divider and mix the 4 3" with the 2 really big ones...but I did it anyway today as the 4 were not going to survive with the bully problem. I am waiting to see how removing the divider changes things, and I hope that once I add the abandoned 1 in the hospital tank after he fully heals that will give me 7 fish in the 75 gallon tank - bare minimum for mitigating bully issues. Trouble is, I now have 2 giant fish and 5 kinda smallish and stunted ones.
Death, dramatically different growth rates, sickness, recovery, hunger strikes, and bullying - DRAMA IN THE QT TANK.
Is this normal???
What could I have done differently?
Is there any hope for the 5 smaller ones to get bigger?
How do you deal with bullying when fish die off and you go below the required quantity for peace?
How do you deal with a situation where 2 of the fish get huge fast and the rest are kinda small?
I got 8 3" fish a month ago from a SD sponsor. At first, 3 of the 8 ate immediately and started to grow big fast, while 5 refused to eat and started to wither. I feed cobalt flakes and freeze dried black worms. Anyway, I put the 5 non-eaters into the hospital tank and gave them a dose of API General Cure because I think the shipping stressed them and that is why they were not eating. After the treatment and about two weeks 4 of the 5 started to eat and were back to normal. The 5th one never ate and withered away and died.
Of the 4 remaining in the hospital tank, 1 still had scars from the hole in the head he got during shipping, so I kept him in the hospital tank and transferred the other 3 back to the big 75 gallon tank with the 3 fish that ate from the beginning.
Of those 3 that ate from the beginning and did not go into the hospital tank, the smallest one was bullied by the bigger 2 and eventually stopped eating. The bigger 2 got huge fast are at least 4+" by now. To save the little one that got bullied, I put a divider in the 75 gallon tank and that kept him safe from the 2 bullies...that saved him...he came back to life and started eating again.
Right around the time the bullied fish was eating and happy again, I put the 3 healthy survivors from the hospital tank into the 75 gallon tank, on the side of the divider of the once bullied fish. I did not want the 2 big fish to bully them. These 4 became friends and ate, but due to their ordeal they hardly grew in the past month, so they are still about 3". The 2 big ones on the other side of the divider continue to grow huge and seem to get along, they are equal size. For the 1 left behind in the hospital tank, I put some salt in the water to help heal his wounds and kept him in there for the past week - it is working, his wounds are healing fast and he is happy and eating.
Today I noticed that the 4 3" fish all together in the 75 gallon tank now have a bully problem...the one that almost died from bullying is now bullying the other 3! He does not let them eat. I was hesitant to remove the divider and mix the 4 3" with the 2 really big ones...but I did it anyway today as the 4 were not going to survive with the bully problem. I am waiting to see how removing the divider changes things, and I hope that once I add the abandoned 1 in the hospital tank after he fully heals that will give me 7 fish in the 75 gallon tank - bare minimum for mitigating bully issues. Trouble is, I now have 2 giant fish and 5 kinda smallish and stunted ones.
Death, dramatically different growth rates, sickness, recovery, hunger strikes, and bullying - DRAMA IN THE QT TANK.
Is this normal???
What could I have done differently?
Is there any hope for the 5 smaller ones to get bigger?
How do you deal with bullying when fish die off and you go below the required quantity for peace?
How do you deal with a situation where 2 of the fish get huge fast and the rest are kinda small?