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Original poster

We have a killer tropical fish - help!

29 replies

lilibet · 04/10/2006 22:04

ds2 has tropical fish and in the big heatwave of summer (all 7 days of it!) we were on our holidays and most of them died. Since then we have bought him 10 new ones and we had a couple left. One of our mollies has turned into a real bully, she is killing the others off one by one by intimidating them.

We now have two mollies left, a black which we raised form being a fry and this horrible mean white one. The white one has now turned on the other and soon that will die too

I'm for killing it, dh thinks I'm mean, but what else can we do? ds2 is loosing interest as tw fish, one of which hides all the time, aren't really interesting.

What would you do?

OP posts:
mummymic · 04/10/2006 22:25

i would either put it in a separate tank, or put it down the tiolet!! [grin ] - is that really mean?

pointydog · 04/10/2006 22:58

"ds2 is loosing interest as tw fish, one of which hides all the time, aren't really interesting."

Maybe he just hates long, lingering deaths

Thank you for reminding me why I'd never want pet fish. I remember a fish-owning friend of mine saying something once about putting bad fish in the freezer. Don't know if that's meant to be a better death? I blotted it from my mind. I've talked too much about fish and have to go now.

mummymic · 04/10/2006 23:04

just remebered that as kids our fish kept dying for no reason - discovered it was furniture polish and air freshener getting in their water - mum sprayed stuff too near them and they died

HumphreyPETERCUSHINGCushion · 04/10/2006 23:15

No expert, I'm afraid.

Once won two goldfish at the fair, and they lasted for years and years - had to give them away when I went to university!

I think I would be tempted to send nasty white fish to the great white toilet in the sky - seems a bit unfair to let him finish the other fish off.

Unless you bought a series of bigger or more ingenious fish, and pit white fish against them. No, no - that really is cruel - sorry, too much wine!

LOL at "maybe he just hates long, lingering deaths" though.

pointydog · 04/10/2006 23:18

FISH FIGHT! FISH FIGHT!

hairymclary · 04/10/2006 23:20

please don't flush it down the toilet. it'll go to the sewage plant and get ground up with the shit.
that isn't very nice is it?
don't freeze it either, that's even worse

can't you take it back to the pet shop or something?

Original poster
lilibet · 05/10/2006 08:02

The pet shop won't have it back

The bugger could live for ages and so we are going to have to get used to life with just one fish whn we have a tank big enough for 15.

We can't put it in a seperate tank as it's tropical so it needs one with heating etc - would be a big cost for the little murdering swine

OP posts:
ScreamandYellowFeathers · 05/10/2006 08:12

Did you buy these fish that are left together?
If a fish is ill other fish will bully them so picking at them, ripping fins etc.

We had 2 fish that we bought together years ago and after 2 or 3 years one of them died, it suddenly turned the other into a revenge driven maniac and picked on the others. One in particular got its eye pecked out!
We had to get one of those breeding nets to seperate them.
I'd really recommend them and if you get one it means you can buy more fish. Eventually you'll be able to introduce the bully back.

TambaTheVampireSlayer · 05/10/2006 08:15

Give it to OMF for his kedgry? (or however you spell it)

Seriously, I would hit it with a brick.

GeorginaA · 05/10/2006 08:21

What I would do is firstly identify what type of fish the bullying one is. Then use the Think Fish Community Creator to find compatible companions for it

GeorginaA · 05/10/2006 08:22

(Oh, and in future, change your pet shop. Any fish shop that doesn't take bullying fish back is crap and not worthy of your money, imo. A good local fish shop will advise which fish make a good community, and take back any fish which cause problems to that community)

GeorginaA · 05/10/2006 08:28

And another thing, never ever flush a fish down a toilet, it's unbelievably cruel

Best way to euthanise a fish relatively painlessly is to remove fish and put in a small container with either 3 parts strong alcohol (cheap vodka is perfect) to 1 part tank water or a good few drops of clove oil in tank water. Close the lid - should be fairly instantaneous, but leave for a few minutes to be sure. Wrap up the corpse in paper or polythene then stick in your normal bin. Remember to dispose of the container too (particularly if you used clove oil!)

ScreamandYellowFeathers · 05/10/2006 08:33

OMG
DO people actually kill their fish?

That is so awful.

GeorginaA · 05/10/2006 08:36

Yes, if they're so sick they're going to die anyway - to avoid suffering

I haven't had to do it yet, but currently suspect my last remaining neon to have neon tetra disease - no cure and pretty horrific for the fish in the last days.

Original poster
lilibet · 05/10/2006 12:13

Georgina, we only had mollies, guppies and tetras.

Shouldn't have had these problems with those

It's jsut a plain nasty fish

Tamba - and would you still eat it??

OP posts:
GeorginaA · 05/10/2006 12:21

Nope - your fish shop should definitely accept the bully back - would avoid them completely in the future. Have a look around for another local fish shop and see if they'll rehome the bully for free (and you never know your luck you might even get credit for a replacement).

AnAngelWithin · 05/10/2006 12:27

flush it!!

KellyKrueger1978 · 05/10/2006 12:36

I've had to kill sick fish. I made fish popsicles!
Seriously though, it is the kindest way to kill them quickly and as painlessly as possible, and the fish I killed were very sick and would not respond to treatment.

I would shop around, you may find a home for it somewhere. If you live anywhere near me (ascot) I might be able to take it, or know someone that can.

I don't really associate mollies wiht being vicious, I opened this thread expecting you had bought an african cichlid or something - now they are nasty!

If no other resource then I would freeze it. I did have problems once with a red tailed shark, which are reknowned for being territorial. I have a large tank though, so as my fish grew I gradually built up to bigger fish that he couldn't intimidate. Along the way I did lose quite a few smaller fish, but its bound to happen really. Eventually he dissapeared, one of the bigger ones prob ate him.

geekgrrl · 05/10/2006 12:39

we have also frozen vicious fish in the past...

thankfully we don't have any fish anymore.

GeorginaA · 05/10/2006 12:39

Sorry to disagree, but freezing means the crystals inside their body gives them an awful lot of pain before they die. Seriously, I wouldn't recommend it. Alcohol or clove oil should be painless for them

NastyNemo666 · 05/10/2006 12:41

We had an angel fish that did this and to be honest we killed it off.

ScreamandYellowFeathers · 05/10/2006 12:57

I'm still gobsmacked that people kill their fish!
Freezing them is just horrific!!!

GeorginaA · 05/10/2006 13:01

Better to let them suffer then and spread disease to the rest of the tank inhabitants (especially risky as fish tend to eat the corpses)?

Do you feel the same about dogs/cats being put down when they're incurably ill and in a lot of pain?

ScreamandYellowFeathers · 05/10/2006 13:03

In a way yes.
I know deep down its the best thing and all that but most cases with fish you can't tell they're ill.

TooTickyTheAppleMuncher · 05/10/2006 13:04

Some fish shops take vicious ones back - we hada red tailedshark that got too big for its boots.