SAP bit chunk off my Cardinal Tetra...

[Ulysees]

Wanted to share experience of SAP's munching on my Cardinal tetra. I have a 180l tank which is a meter long. With Four Saps. Planted Amazon-ish biotype.
I had 7 cardinals in the tank too. But yesterday found a cardinal struggling along, minus a fin, and with puffer bite marks.

I tried shouting bad, naughty, and bad at the tank, but the puffers seemed unresponsive so i moved the cardinals to my quarantine tank.

Not sure what to do next though. Should i try again and risk loosing more tetras?

I'm thinking of moving around the tank, in an attempt to disrupt territories. I've also got some amazon frogbit on route to give a bit more shelter for puff's as I've focused on getting lots of current in the setup not really hiding places.


Just wanted to share my expience and wondered if any sap owners had any other thoughts about aggression or suggestions?
I'm completely willing to find new home for the cardinal tetras too. I did loose that tetra and he was in perfect health before. The puffers have only been in the tank 5 days so it's early days. The tetras for months.

[pufferpuggirl]

I think when you keep puffers with other fish, you always run the risk of the puffers getting nippy, although I will admit that it seems out of character for the SAP's to have done that. Obviously if you put your Tetras back in, the very same thing could happen again. I would consider keeping the Tetras out and leaving the SAP's to be by themselves.

I hope you were just kidding when you shouted at the puffers .... otherwise I think you could shout to the cows come home and it isn't going to do any good.

[Pufferpunk]

I think when you keep puffers with other fish, you always run the risk of the puffers getting nippy

+1

[Ulysees]

Yeah, shouting at puffs was my attempt at humour, sorry for any confusion.

anthropomorphism aside, I think I will look for a new home for the cardinals.
Thank you for your comments, It's settling my decision.

Just too risky, ironically the Amano shrimp i bought as food is happily moving about ignored by puffs.

[pufferpuggirl]

I did actually think you were joking .... so no worries.

I have yet to see any of my puffers attack a shrimp. They sort of watch them and look interested, but never do them any harm.

[Myaj]

That is VERY unusual for a SAP to attack another fish, seriously.

Is there anything else in there that could have possibly done it? If it was me, I think I'd leave the cardinals in and watch the behavior for a few days.. I have my doubts it will happen again but maybe one of your guys is a little aggressive devil in disguise!

[omplmpa3]

I'm about to attempt a community tank with SAPs. So far I'm planning on adding my danios and my upsidedown cats. The danios are fast and the cats are invisible until lights out. Hopefully it will stay that way once they are all together. But I have extra tanks on hand just in case. So far I have one SAP, and it's still in quarantine. I would like to get at least two more SAPs, but I don't come across them that frequently and I want to have reasonably healthy looking ones to choose from. I was going to wait until I had three and then add them to the tank as a trio. But now I'm wondering if it would be better to add the one I have when it's done with quarantine. It's about an inch in length, very curious and outgoing (which suprised me because everything I read said they were somewhat timid). Does anyone have any opinions on what would be best, wait for a trio of SAPs or add the singleton? I guess I'm thinking about dominance and hierarchies, knowing full well that the puffers could change their minds at any moment. I still have two weeks to decide.

[Ulysees]

Yeah, I am certain it was the saps. I did not see it take place, but there was distinct fin nipping and chunk missing. What shocks me about sap's is just how fast they are. The cardinals are fast, but, these little guys are seriously fast.

omplmpa, I have four and they really shoal well.The only time i see anything close to sap aggression is when food arrives, they quabble over food, but only a tug of war over a bloodworm. They dont go for each other at all. I dont seem to have any dominance issues in the shoal at all.

I would put the singleton in the tank if healthy and finished quarantine. Then quarantine any new saps you buy. Otherwise your exposing a safe fish to potential problems with the 2nd batch of saps. It'll also give you filter time to adjust to the increased bioload.
But, that's just my 0.02.

[omplmpa3]

That's good advice Ulysees, thank you.