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My sister has a 15 gallon long (like a 20 gallon, but not as tall) in her room. Current stock are two male mollies, five juvie male guppies and one lone long finned blue danio. I'm not even going to touch on the molly issue... The LFS guy told her 2-3 inches and she believes that. They've also not grown more than that, so... Anyway. BESIDES the molly issue - cause they're not going anywhere - what do you think should happen in this tank?

I should point out that the danio is left from a larger group... at least two danios that I know of (this tank was up with her at school, so I don't know all the specifics) died after their spines began to curve/die/however-you-want-to-say-it. They seemed quite healthy up until they died, despite this handicap. The last one to die was the boss of the tank. She swam fine and looked normal except for when at rest, when her spine curved. Thought I had a picture, but apparently not.

Anyway, the danio is picking on the guppies... their poor tails look like swiss cheese. I'm thinking adding at least two more danios to dispurse aggression. She wants to add two ADF's (she had them previously, but they died of a skin condition that she didn't know how to identify).

I was going to trade her my three danios for her guppies, but a discussion in chat makes me leery... how likely is it that the curvature of the spine is related to some long-lingering illness? I believe it was tryst that suggested NTD or TB... the danios apparently didn't show any other illness besides the curving... the LFS guy said it could also be caused by old age. I don't know offhand how long danios are supposed to last, but she's had them in the tank for a year now and only one left. (The curvature of the spine began sometime last fall and the last danio affected died earlier this year.)

So yeah... any ideas? I can point out that the fish I'm proposing to add would bring her stock back up to about what it was previously.

Last edited by Kitten at 17-May-2005 13:26

~Meow. Thus spoke the cat.~

Kitten take a look at the other fish in the tank, and ask sister if any other fish have been affected...if they haven't been affected yet I would go ahead and assume that they are disease free, and that it was just a case of old age, or what have you) It would be the same as buying these fish and having had them in quaranteen...So I say go ahead and swap fish with her...save those poor little guppies

heidi michelle

"I've got a great ambition to die of exhaustion rather than boredom." Thomas Carlyle

None of the other fish show any signs of disease, and haven't, even since the very first sign in the first danio. Personally, I would have thought that if it were a disease of some sort, it would have effected the guppies first, and not the danios. Despite being the whole long-finned deal, I would assume them to be more hardy than those tiny little guppies!

I went ahead and made a trip to my LFS... they had the long finned blue danios on sale for 99 cents a piece! Had to get them while the getting was good! I got two, and already they're schooling together and picking on each other instead of the poor guppies.

I'm considering trading my three golden long finned danios (been with me since I first started my tanks!) for the five small guppies. They'd be going into my 12 gallon tank (same footprint as a ten, just taller) to join the other two male guppies I have, and the three female bettas. Happily, the betta girls don't pick on the guppies, though the danios sometimes nip at them. However, my guppies have barely a few nicks out of their fins... her guppies have half-tails!

~Meow. Thus spoke the cat.~