# Is this fin nipping?



## smellfry (Jun 3, 2013)

I have quite a few fish which have damaged fins. The fins seem to be separated and sometimes there's small chunks missing. Is this fin nipping due to aggression or could it be a disease? An example is the Hongi below. It's the tank boss, but sometimes fights with the other hongi male. As you can see, its bottom fin looks like it has been nipped. Would feeding twice per day reduce aggression? The tank has peacocks, haps and mbuna.


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## Deeda (Oct 12, 2012)

It looks like aggression to me. Feeding more won't help that.


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## stiglitz (Aug 20, 2013)

You only feed once a day..?


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## Deeda (Oct 12, 2012)

stiglitz said:


> You only feed once a day..?


I usually feed twice a day depending on the stocking levels of the tank and fast one day a week.


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## Floridagirl (Jan 10, 2008)

Fin nipping is, IMO, more of a stocking issue than a feeding issue. 1 male per species helps.


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## smellfry (Jun 3, 2013)

The problem is I can't find the guy doing the fin nipping, otherwise i would have removed him.


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## Deeda (Oct 12, 2012)

What species do you have stocked in this tank?


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## smellfry (Jun 3, 2013)

I have albino peacock, red empress, electric blue, auratus(doesn't seem aggressive), eureka red, hongi, red zebra, demasoni, maingano, electric yellow, bumblebee


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

Wow, what are the dimensions? Two male hongi is one thing to fix right there.


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## smellfry (Jun 3, 2013)

It's 1.5m x 0.4m x 0.8m tall. The hongi don't seem to be fighting much. Would I still need I remove one?


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## Deeda (Oct 12, 2012)

Roughly converts to 60" long x 16" wide x 32" high and 132 gallons for the non-metric readers like me.

Two males of the same species or similarly colored males will usually cause problems. Is this an all male tank or do you have male/female ratios of the various species you are keeping?


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## smellfry (Jun 3, 2013)

This is an all male tank


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## Floridagirl (Jan 10, 2008)

Males tend to fight. What kind of aquascaping do you have? Can you post pictures? I have a similar size tank with about 30 fish. Overstocking seems to help. I'd get rid of the Auratus and Bumblebee and add some more small Haps and Peacocks. Or keep 5 males(hongi, red zebra, demasoni, maingano, electric yellow) and find females for them.


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## smellfry (Jun 3, 2013)

I want to try keeping an all male tank.


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## Floridagirl (Jan 10, 2008)

It's pretty, but the rockwork is sparse for Mbuna. Also, I see multiples of many species. How do you know they are all males?


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## smellfry (Jun 3, 2013)

Oh I thought the rock work was sufficient as some videos on YouTube only had some upright rocks around the tank. I'll see if it's possible I add some more rocks. I guess I'm just assuming that they are all males as they're coloured up, but in some cases they were hormoned. I'll be removing any females


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

If you remove all females you have an all male tank. For an all male tank you want only one male/species and no similar-looking fish.


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## Floridagirl (Jan 10, 2008)

Also, for most Mbuna, males and females are colorful. the only sure way to learn the sex of the fish is to Vent them. Here is a link to venting fish.


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## stiglitz (Aug 20, 2013)

I would suggest to just watch your tank and your fish everyday for like 30 minutes. Don't be close enough for them to see you and go up to you. You want to observe them in their natural behavior. By doing this you'll most likely be able to quickly determine who the fin nipper/bully is that is doing this.

Trust me, I know this from experience. There was a time when I lost interest in this hobby and the only time I looked at my Mbuna tank was to feed them. During this period of time, I lost EIGHT fish all due to ONE Auratus. I never figured it out until I finally took the time to sit down and watch who was doing this. It could have been prevented by removing the Auratus after the first death, but due to my apathy and idiocy, I waited too long.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying it's your Auratus that is doing the fin nipping. I'm not even saying that there's a higher possibility that it is him. I don't want a certain fish to have a bad reputation just because that same fish didn't work for other people. All fish are different.

Keep us updated. :thumb:


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## smellfry (Jun 3, 2013)

Ok cheers. I will do that


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