Normal?

A while back I had some red eye tetra and one of them kept staring at the bubbles coming from the air stone, he barely ate because he seemed so mesmerized by the bubbles, kinda like the yellow fish from finding nemo. He ended up being about half the size of the others and eventually died. Has anyone had the same experience?

 

Seriously?
Mine grew large and eventually died of Old Age.Have only one left now.
Never heard of such behaviour before.

 

yup he literally just hovered in one spot and stared at them.
Btw how long do they live?

 

+/- 5 years life expectancy. Strange one...

 

ok well he was about a year I think so he def didn't die of old age

 

I had an Angelfish that also did the same and I also wondered what it was. It wasn't like that when I bought it, but one day I also saw it only starred at the bubbles, almost like as if it was retarded and could get its brain to do something else. It also died after a few months.

 

I doubt that the small growth and stationary behaviour is actually anything to do with the bubbles.

Its more likely that the tetra was avoiding the rest of the tetras so as not to be attacked. I have also found that the odd tetra will tend to stay in one area of the tank, and almost sulk away, particularly if they are sick.

Also, Tetras that are commercially bred tend to have a reasonably high percentage of 'deformed/stunted/weaker' fish. It is probable that it fell into this category?

Regards
G!

 

Ok sounds like that could be it, I just thought it strange how it would just sit there