Harlequins dying/eaten

Hi

I bought 5 Harlequins 2 weeks ago, 3 have died, but looks like they tails wher eaten, I have 2 swordfish and 4 Sepea tetra in the tank as well, also I had my Siamese figther in the tank but I think the Harlequins have eaten its fins and it alos died. I thought is was somethng to do with the water so I did a water change and cleaned the filter, tank was run for 2 wek befroe adding fish Any ideas, the other 2 harlenquins look fine and have grown since I bougth them

 

Think your culprit may be the Serpae's...they are notorious as being fin nippers - increase your shoal to about 8 or more and this behaviour should stop....

 

ime, Harlequins are very finiky fish.. they need a mature tank and good water conditions to really do well.. how long has your tank been running for? usually needs a few months..

 

Well the tank is running for about a month, the LFS guy told me they(Halequins) would be ok, he seemed to know what he was talking about so I believed him, F#$king idiot. I hate when people bullsh!t you just to make a sale. Ok will get more Serpea's any other fish suggestion , I need something with some nice color, I was upset about the siamese as I had him in my "Fishbowl" tank for almost a year :-(.

 

Can't you exchange the serpeas for other fish? Go for Danio, Rasbora, Neons/Cardinalis...or if u want to keep the serpea, then go for red eye, columbian tetra, golden barbs or rosy barb...

 

Azurekoi is 100% right. Increase the school of Serpeas to 8 plus. I have done that in my community tank and all fin nipping stopped. Also have 10 harlequins with them. Even have much smaller Galaxy rasboras in and doing fine.

 

Hi J,

Since your tank has not been running for that long the chances are very good that you still have some new tank sindrome, aka high levels of ammonia and nitrite in your tank. The best is to get yourself some test kits and test the water. Ammonia, Nitrite and pH tests are very important. If you do not have test kits yet, you can also ask the pet store if they can test your aquarium water. Have you read some of the nitrogen cycle threads yet? If you understand the nitrogen cycle and you keep your water quality at a high level you will have few trouble with an aquarium.

Also remember when you clean your filter material do not use tapwater. The chlorine in tapwater will kill all the beneficial bacteria in your filter media. Use some of the water you took out of your aquarium to clean the filter.

Then very importantly before you buy any fish do some reading about this specific fish's temperament, how big it will grow, the water paramaters it needs, feeding requirements etc. Do not just go on what the pet store guy tells you. Go and have a look at what kind of fish they have at the pet store. If there is anything specific that you like write down their names and then go do your homework on this fish before you go back to buy them. Take into account that common names can often be used for more than one species of fish, so ask at the pet store if they can give you the scientific name of the fish.

Good luck with your new tank!