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Ive just recently added 12 neons + 1 female betta to my 12g tank. Those are the only fish in the tank atm and ive noticed that a few (2-3) of my neons chase the other ones quite often. Are they the dominant neons of the tank or are they hungry or something? This is my first time with tetras and i thought neons are suppose to be peaceful fish

I have Cardinals doing the same thing. The chaser is usually the largest in the tank, they never seem to make any contact with each other. I would not be too concerned. If you think it is becoming too aggressive take it back and get another one.

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Keith

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Thanx for the reply. The neons doing the chasing are actually the smallest ones in the tank

It's pretty much a dominant fish sort of thing. The most aggressive (or in this case, dominant) neons will chase around the others just to show that they can, and establish who the boss fish are. It's nothing to worry about, really.

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My neons and glowlights chase each other. The glowlights are worse because there are some little runts. They get chased the most. The big ones have to show the little ones who is boss...much like humans do.

*Kristin*

hi if it is the the thin long ones chasing the fat ones then it is male chasing female mine do that so i put one fat female and one thin male in a tank and they had eggs

Juwel beat me to this ...

Observe closely which individuals are engaged in 'chasing' activity. I have 12 Cardinals, and I've noticed that when 'chasing' activity starts (which in the case of my Cardinals is better described as 'jousting'), the principal individuals involved tend to be slender. When two slender individuals engage in this behaviour, which in the case of my Cardinals involves one individual making a glancing pass at another, which is then usually reciprocated, and sometimes leads to a sequence of multiple 'chase passes' between the 'combatants', then this is a sign that males are establishing a social hierarchy to determine who is 'top dog' when it comes to mating later on.

However, a different kind of 'chasing' involves a slender fish chasing a much more rounded fish. This is the run-up to spawning if the fishes are well-conditioned, the rounded fish being the female. In this form of the behaviour, the chased fish doesn't turn around and reciprocate the manouevre: instead, the chased fish appears, to the casual observer, to be being harassed, but upon closer examination, instead of actively seeking a hiding place, 'pauses' in mid chase almost as if encouraging the pursuit. A gravid female will be seen to do this quite visibly if she is ready to spawn.

I've also had instances of another behaviour in my aquarium with my Cardinals, which at first appeared to be completely weird, but which made sense in the light of the mating behaviour of the Cardinal Tetra in the wild. I had at least one fish that appeared to have taken up 'cave dwelling' in my bogwood 'boot' - upon closer examination, the 'cave dweller' was always a slender fish, and engaged in activity which looked as if the fish was trying to entice another fish into the 'cave' with it. The 'cave' in this instance was heavily shrouded in Java Moss, which lends weight to what I'm about to suggest, namely that this was a male hoping to entice a female into the 'cave' to spawn. The reason I have described this 'cave dwelling' as mating-related behaviour is simple - in the wild, Cardinals migrate up the Rio Negro to regions where the waters are completely enclosed above by the forest canopy, and where precious little light penetrates to the forest floor. It has been known for a long time that breeding Cardinals is a challenge to aquarists not only because of the water chemistry requirements (soft, acidic water, preferably peat filtered) but because of the need for total darkness because the eggs are photosensitive, and die if exposed to the normal light levels present in a daytime aquarium. That the Cardinal Tetra spawns in a darkened environment in the wild lends weight to the idea that my 'cave dwelling' Cardinal was a male on the lookout for a receptive female.

An awful lot of odd behaviours in fishes can be answered quite readily by, to use the phrase from the venerable Innes Book, "thinking like a fish". Basically, put yourself in the position of the fish, and ask yourself two questions, namely "how do I get food" and "how do I get sex" ... that usually leads to the answers when fishes seem to be behaving oddly!


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

So the smaller/thinner neons (males i assume) chasing the bigger rounder ones are probably the males wanting to spawn with females. I always thought that the rounder ones were the pigs of the tank but guess they're just females

Thanx for the replies!