Cardinal tetra behavior?

**Chrona** · 01-30-2007, 12:30 AM

Well, I'm up to 6, and it's still the same situation....well...more fish = more fighting now...lol

Basically theres 1 in each corner with 2 staying together around the middle. Today, I saw one of the original cardinals nip at the Angelfish when I was feeding them. THAT was a surprise!

I mooched a water test from my local fish shop, and as I suspected, the hardness is about where it should be with a dGH of 4. pH hasn't changed either. Although the water started getting a little murky. Not sure why, because my ammonia/nitrite/nitrates were all fine. Water clarifiers didn't do anything either.

What I really need is liquid Ritalin for fish I think....T.T

**wijnands** · 03-21-2007, 10:52 AM

I've had cardinals for ages. Just started with a new shoal last month. I've never seen this kind of behaviour in them. Even when at one time I only had a pair of them left Time for some group therapy?

**Chrona** · 03-21-2007, 01:15 PM

The aggression seems to have gone down a bit after I took out the angelfish and the siamese algae eater and replaced them with a dwarf gourami and 2 oto cats. I actually added 2 more cardinal tetras (for a total of 5) before that, and they chased each other around even more, lol.

**Chrona** · 03-22-2007, 01:14 AM

Funny how things go round circle. This was my first post, and I've finally been able to crack the puzzle. Turns out Hobbs was right all along. After taking the angelfish (and the SAE) out, the cardinals have now calmed down and are schooling peacefully, with no fights even after feeding, which is when they used to be the rowdiest. My guess is that, even though I never saw the angelfish case after the tetras, the mere presence of a predator stressed the cardinals, resulting in some irregular behavior. I'm relieved that it wasn't an overcrowding issue.